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Thinking about Lent
If you come from a religious tradition that teaches about Lent and how to practice Lent, then you already know more than I do. Last week, I asked a friend who attends a Methodist church if she observes Lent. She said Yes, she observes Lent, and Yes, she will get ashes on her forehead tomorrow. Lent falls on Valentines’s Day this year. I look forward to Valentine’s Day because for me it signifies winter is half over. I shouldn’t hurry through any season of life, but winter drags me down. The darkness––shorter days and longer nights––an illness that usually sends me to bed at least once every winter, temperatures that…
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Did I Read 23 Books in 2023?
Stephen King refers to books as “portable magic.” Books enable readers to engage with the world beyond our own limitations and experiences. In early December, someone asked me how many books I had read this year. I had no idea. Beginning last year, I did start keeping track in the NOTES app on my phone, so later I checked and discovered I have read 23 in ’23. I am not a fast reader, nor do I compete with other readers or attempt to break records. I am a careful reader. I write in books and I work to remember at least some of what I read. I welcome book recommendations…
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2023: A “Common Year” Ends
A “common year” ends tonight at midnight. 2023 was a common year. The previous common year was 2017 and the next common year is 2034. What? You don’t know what a common year is? Neither did I until today. A “common year” has 365 days as opposed to 366 days in Leap Year, yet more specifically a common year begins and ends on a Sunday. I was born on a Sunday, and this year my birthday fell on a Sunday. I’m partial to Sundays. Like many of you readers, I am spending this last day of 2023, a Sunday (also known in Christian circles as “the LORD’s day”), reflecting on…
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A Time to Pivot
This is my 200th blog, posted on this website that I created using a WordPress Theme (there are thousands to choose from). I spent a lot of time last summer revising the appearance, choosing a new theme, and working to make your reading experience better. Start Logic hosts my website for annual fees that include security so that I don’t get hacked and neither do you. My husband supports this endeavor, just as he has every venture I have attempted since we married. What a crazy resumé that would make. Is writing my blog a hobby or more important than that? I’ve been asking myself this question for the past…
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Expectations Rob Us of Joy
Another journal, another entry, a note to self revealed that my expectations of other people presents a recurring problem for me. [1] But what if the person of whom I have expectations is the person who raised those expectations in the first place? What if a failure to meet those expectations undermines my trust in that person’s word? Someone I trusted either forgot what they said or else changed their mind. Does this call into question their character? Anyone in whom you or I place confidence can fail to meet our expectations. It could be a teacher, a doctor, a friend, a spouse, colleagues. Confidence begins to corrode. Like most…
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Hark! A Predator at my Door
“Can I come get my hawk?” I was still in my robe. Answering the doorbell, my husband could see a young man holding his phone. Minutes before, a hawk had flown into the glass door to our patio. I’d been watching it as both the bird and I stood dazed and confused. It’s common for dove to fly into the glass and when I heard the thud, that’s what I thought had happened. But this thud was more like a crash. Grateful the glass hadn’t cracked, I jumped up, saw this HUGE bird, thankful it wasn’t dead, I grabbed my dog’s collar, and yelled for my husband. “Is that a…
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A Labor of Love
Dear Readers of Footnotes2Stories, “I am writing this to you, and I hope that you will read it so you’ll know . . .” how much I care. When summer ended and school used to start after Labor Day, often the first day assignment included writing: “How I spent my summer vacation.” Writing was good practice for thinking about what I had done, what I read, and which experiences stood out. Swimming lessons, Camp Fire Girls Day Camp (raising and lowering the flag each day), and weeks spent at the Friends of Youth Camp at Mt. Charleston outside of Las Vegas, Nevada made summer fun. Although I never had an…
