Beauty – Page 4 – The Weight of My Days

Wherever you are

We waited all week for it. Everyone’s watching the weather report, changing their plans, buying extra groceries. Me, I went to Atlanta and stayed here. We didn’t escape the snow. Atlanta caught the tail of Jonas, and the white crystals snuck in this evening. The view from the condo is not as nice as at home, … read more Wherever you are

Advice from my 90-year-old self

I had a talk today with myself – in the year 2049. Or at least, the 90-year-old me was in 2049. I did this because I was feeling stuck and unsure of so many things, as though I’m in my 20s again (horrors!). But then I remembered how I recently gave my 23-year-old self some … read more Advice from my 90-year-old self

The new normal

Today is the first time I’ve been moving at a normal speed for the whole day. Although I didn’t exactly jump out of bed, I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and had a normal morning routine: a shower, coffee and breakfast, my art improv exercise, reading a magazine. A month ago, I couldn’t imagine normalcy … read more The new normal

Parallel universe

I just found out that my friend Patty’s husband died two weeks ago. Such a major event, and I didn’t even know. Patty has a smile that makes me run across the room to be near her. She was very sweet to me in my early days here in North Georgia, one of my first friends. She was … read more Parallel universe

Re-gifted

Sometimes people get gifts they don’t want, so they just give them to someone else. Christmas is a great excuse for this practice of “re-gifting.” That happened to me today. I woke to a rainy, misty day on the mountain. I got up because my back was aching to move. I was very slow, still a … read more Re-gifted

Hallelujah!

Dec. 18: I struggled with the scissors. Moving them slowly back and forth across the green construction paper, I came up with a shape that lacked an identity. It resembled a fir tree only because I used pinking shears to give it a jagged edge. Then I tried to cut small circles out of red construction … read more Hallelujah!

Lost and found

I’ve really been missing my purple reading glasses. I bought them about a year ago, along with a purple wallet, a purple neck warmer, and a purple headband. Some of this purple binge came from the poem, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple…” by Jenny Joseph. Why wait until you’re old? Purple is … read more Lost and found

Cutting a tomato into 48 pieces

Twenty-five minutes: What can you accomplish? The tomato method says: A lot. If you do only ONE thing – and nothing else. Like a lot of people, I struggle to walk the fine line between multitasking and being scatter-brained. Email and social media are a constant lure, an easy way to distract us from focusing on the … read more Cutting a tomato into 48 pieces

Nauseated from memory

When I was little, I’d get deathly carsick. As a kid I read constantly, and it was hard for me to put down the book. But I think it was good for me to have to look out the window instead of always at the pages of a book. Maybe it’s even why I became … read more Nauseated from memory

Time isn’t money

I lost $35,000 in two months. My life is exactly the same. Money is fiction. Live your soul. In December of 2008, after the U.S. financial meltdown, I wrote those words on a card. I stapled the card to the folder where I keep the receipts for the month, so that I would see it every time … read more Time isn’t money