“You haven’t changed a bit!” I would have assured the woman I saw passing me on the street, had I stopped to talk. The daughter of one of our former presidents, she went to a girls’ school in New York at the same time I did, and I recognized her instantly, as always. Unfortunately, I… Continue Reading
How often I’ve seen the image lodged in my brain. Someone is standing beyond a fork in the road, alone and presumably dismayed, studying the divergent routes. Looking back at the place where the road breaks off to take a completely different trajectory, I can hear the familiar person mutter, ‘but I’d planned to go… Continue Reading
What’s a new life, and how do you get one? So many people have been saying to me recently, enjoy your new life; but if I have a new life, it’s news to me. I keep looking for the landmarks of change and missing them. Either because I don’t know what I’m looking for or… Continue Reading
“It’s a what?” I wasn’t hard of hearing in my late 40s; I was just thrown by the new term “A Gated Community,” my husband announced, articulating slowly for my edification. “Why?” I asked. Placed in the heart of 450 acres of undeveloped forest, a gate seemed the height of redundancy. The one I was looking… Continue Reading
Oh my God, what am I going to do? I shot up in bed in a cold sweat; not comforting at 3:30 a.m. when you have early appointments the next day. Reassured by my IPhone that it was not yet the accepted time for rising, I forced myself to lie back on my pillow faking… Continue Reading
My friend’s smug self-satisfaction gave her the look of Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat. “I’m giving up peanut butter for lent,” she said. I shot back, “how stupid,” before I could stop myself. “Why?” “Because it’s lent!” My blank expression gave me away. “You’re not religious enough to understand,” she said. I assumed she must be… Continue Reading