Category Archives: Aging
Overwhelmed. But Improving
It’s been quite a while since I wrote last. I’ve been very overwhelmed. You probably don’t need the word ‘very’ with ‘overwhelmed.’ but it makes me feel better to use it. I need the extra emphasis that adverbs bring. About a year ago, I took on an extra job. I already had three part-time jobs. …
Remembering
My mother died a month ago. She was 98. I don’t know what to write about her now. I’ve written about her so many times already; I’m not sure what else I could say. She was bright. She was funny. She was beautiful. She was kind. She was a daughter, a wife, a mother, a …
Collection Time
I’m here to collect on some debts. Some very old debts. What I am owed is: Sympathy. Sometimes you have little accidents doing something stupid. You don’t want your stupidity revealed. When you hurt yourself being a dumbbell, you kind of have to keep quiet about it. Pretending everything is fine when it isn’t may …
Fantastic
I discovered something. It wasn’t a sudden lightning bolt epiphany. But there was a lightning bolt of a sort. The kind that hits you with a gentle slap to the forehead, saying, “Duh -of course!” I’ve been working at the library for six months now. It is exactly the right job for me at this …
Bossy
I haven’t written for a while. I’ve been trying to decide what to write about going back to work after five years of retirement. But now I’ve decided – I love it. I wasn’t bored in my retirement. I write. I paint. I play with my dogs and cats. I belong to more than one …
Having Lost My Mind
I have now been retired for five years. I love being retired. I love living my life exactly as I wish. No schedule. No deadlines. No bosses. And now I have done it. Or un-done it. Lost my senses. I’ve un-retired. I saw a posting for a part-time bookkeeper at my local library. And all …
Unedited
I have a writer friend. Like many of my writer friends, I don’t truly know her. She’s a professional acquaintance. I like her. But mostly because I like writers. I don’t even remember how we became friends – or, more accurately, internet acquaintances. But it was many years ago. Maybe our first books came out …
Old Poetry
When I was a teenager, I wrote a lot of poetry. Some of it was good – I won a few awards. But most of it was typical adolescent mediocrity. Life is never more unfair or more glorious than when you are seventeen. Most of it didn’t survive. I remember only orphan lines. They come …
Not Having Children
(I wrote this essay twenty years ago. I published it here for the first time six years ago. This Mother’s Day, I share it again.) *** I married when I was forty. It was amazing at that age how many people asked me if we were going to have children. No, I’d say, We’re not …
Ghosted
I just spent all day writing a long piece on the end of a friendship. I decided not to post it. Because I realize that after 1500 words, what I wanted to say wasn’t there. Here is a short version. A year ago, a friend ghosted me. She broke dates, stopped calling, stopped returning my …
notquiteold 