(Photo by Suzette Martinez Standring, Houghton’s Pond, Milton, MA) Thanksgiving celebrates togetherness and family feasting, and perhaps, it also calls for restraint. I am not talking about the groaning buffet and ten desserts. I am talking about not talking about hot button issues. Live for the greater good and show mercy to the poor cook […]
Valentine’s Day calls to mind the young, the sexy, the hormonally driven. On passion’s official day, the quiet, the methodical and the somewhat uptight are overlooked. But Cupid’s arrow hits them, too. Take, for example, my British in-laws. Margaret and Norman embodied reserve, decorum and moderation, with days spent in their North Yorkshire garden, turning […]
Valentines Day is romance in a heart-shaped candy box. Our annual day of love is a huge leap from its historical origins: drunken Roman fertility rites and Christian martyrdom. How did lace-edged Valentine cards evolve from orgies and a beheading or two? One might ask how did St. Patrick come to be synonymous with green […]
New school and work schedules surge forward. Goals. Deadlines. Kids. Get involved. Socials. Volunteerism. We go from the sunburn of summer to the burnout of busyness that fall brings. A question nags, “Am I ever enough?” Arguably, women are more apt to wonder. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that in 2014, 83% of women […]
Labor Day marks the last summer hurrah for families. Parents of out-of-town college kids teeter on the edge of an empty nest. Tears, goodbye hugs, bittersweet farewells. Separation and full adulthood take a leap of faith. I’m talking about parents. My daughter, Star, is 42, so it’s been years since she drove away to make […]