As I was finalizing my plans for Thanksgiving a week ago, thoughts of all I had to be grateful for flooded my mind – wonderful parents, siblings and extended family, friends, great health, a warm home, good food, a feeling of purpose… Pretty much the norm for most people I know. And then I volunteered at the Global Fest on Michigan State University’s campus on Sunday, and from the opening Chinese Lion Dance, it was clear what I am especially grateful for this year. Are you familiar with Continue Reading
What I Learned at my First Writing Competition
Yesterday, I competed in a day long writing event in honor of #NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write 50,000 words. Sponsored by the Capital City Writers Association, it was a 12 hour day, and I was with 95 other people, camped out in Spartan Stadium’s press box on the beautiful campus of Michigan State University. Do I have a novel in me? Who knows; it’s more of a personal challenge, a stretch goal for sure. I certainly have the story, but translating it to Continue Reading
How Many More Do We Have To Lose?
I lost a friend yesterday to breast cancer, and I’m ticked. Frankly, I’m more than ticked, but for the purposes of this blog, I’ll leave it at that. And let me tell you why I'm angry. In 2015, at age 64, this woman died of the same ugly illness that took my mother from me in 1980 when she was just 59. Thirty five years, and I wonder what progress we’ve made. And the fact that she died on the last day of Breast Cancer Awareness month only makes me madder, and makes me wonder if the plethora of Continue Reading
Zumba’d Out
It’s apparent, I have a love/ hate relationship with maintaining a healthy weight. I’d love to have less stress on my joints, heart and lungs – who wouldn’t! But I hate the time it takes and the refocus on my eating habits that it requires. Weight management is not rocket science – I need to eat less and move more. Why is that so hard to figure out? I am more than capable of solving this dilemma, yet you might as well put a complex physics problem in front of me and ask me to figure it Continue Reading