We retired people don’t need vacations for rest, the way we used to when we worked full-time. But most of us still crave the chance to change things up: to change the pace, change the place, and spend some time recharging. We need to vary things a little. I know I do. The Italians call … Read More
The other day, when a friend and I were chatting about the catastrophic heat wave out west, the talk turned naturally to more general environmental concerns. She’s a scientist and loves the ocean. “I’ve been thinking for years,” she said, frowning, “that I should avoid single-use plastics. So many of them are getting dumped in … Read More
The late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg reported that, just before her wedding, her mother gave her some amusing advice for marriage: “Sometimes it helps to be a little deaf.” (She added it was also excellent advice for dealing with colleagues.) I thought of that story last year when I got asked by StoryWorth about relationship … Read More
“Only connect”—that’s as much as many of us remember about E. M. Forster. (It’s true even for those like me, who read his novels in my twenties with real pleasure.) By itself, the phrase sounds trite and way too earnest, in the gag-producing vein of Richard Bach’s “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” … Read More
Yesterday I cried about Nova Scotia. Or rather, I cried about the very real prospect that this summer, like last summer, we won’t be allowed in to Nova Scotia. At this time of year, I would usually be humming a happy song while I plan the move to our cottage up there—which is not just … Read More
What most people call Spring, I experience as Pollen Season. This month, all the plants and trees are soaking up the sunshine and rain and growing inches each day. They’re also putting out unbelievable amounts of yellow, dusty stuff that makes me sneeze like crazy. Thank goodness for antihistamines. Without them, I’d spend the whole … Read More
“This was the time in her life,” Ondaatje writes of a young nurse in The English Patient, “that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world.” That young nurse, Hanna, is deeply traumatized by her experiences as a WWII nurse in Italy. In a bombed-out villa … Read More
One of my husband’s favorite Little Golden Book from his childhood was The Little House in the Big Forest, in which a family builds a house in the forest and then settles into its cozy shelter. His mother wrote his name and the year—1949, when he was three—on the title page. The book reminded him of … Read More
Hallelujah! The new CDC guidelines suggest that fully vaccinated people can, after two weeks, have dinner with a few other fully vaccinated people—without wearing masks. A Facebook friend calls it Liberation Day. We’ve got a date for one child to visit, I’m already contemplating small dinner parties, and I can’t wait. It’s been a long, … Read More
If you could live your life over again, would you change anything? Would you make any decisions differently? And if you’d chosen those other paths, would your life have been happier? Or more successful? Or more fulfilled? I’ve been thinking about these questions because I just finished reading Matt Haig’s Midnight Library. In the novel, … Read More