Bounce Back Blog
Can You Hear Me Now?
According to a short Google search I just conducted, the best historic evidence suggests that marriage as a formal institution has existed for nearly 5,000 years. In all that time, there has likely never been one single wife who, at some point or other, didn’t blurt...
The Fishing Pond and the Secret of an Abundant Life
As is likely the case for many of us, my upbringing included a strong emphasis on the notion of limitations. For much of my early life I accepted the “truth” that there was a finite amount of such commodities as love, recognition and happiness without ever challenging...
Mirror, Mirror, Who’s the Oldest of Them All?
They say you should never believe your own press, that you are neither as great nor as awful as any particular source deems you to be. I just had that lesson slap me in the face. Hard. Some of the young women—in their 20s and 30s—from my adult ESL class hung around...
The Give and Take of Life: Unexpected Friendships
The older I get, the more clearly I see—through my new trifocals—that life really is a give-and-take proposition, often with equally unsatisfactory results. For example, life giveth plantar fasciitis and taketh away fashionable footwear. Conversely, life taketh away...
Zing(ara) Went the Strings of My Heart
Both of my parents were first-generation Americans and when I was growing up they often sprinkled their speech with Italian words and expressions that hit the nail on the head for them much better than any English translation could. Their words were like background...
What’s in a Name?
My father, my sister and I enjoyed a close familial relationship, but we also shared a bond that went beyond our bloodline, a commonality we didn’t so much celebrate as endure. We each had an intense dislike of our given names. In a world chock full of Toms, Dicks and...
Giving a Hoot–A Final Farewell From My Sister
I’m not what you’d call a nature girl. While I appreciate the beauty of the natural world, I feel no need to camp out in it or get parts of it directly on me. A “back-to-nature” retreat to me means having fresh-cut flowers on the table beside my soaking tub. My older...
Happy Birthday, Mom
My parents were born exactly two years and one week apart. My mom was the older woman, so scandalous! Last Thursday would have been my dad's 97th birthday and I reprinted some excerpts about him from my book My Pineapples Went to Houston. Today would have been my...
Seeking Comfort Against the Grain
I was born to make nice. I know that most women my age were socialized to do the same, but I truly excel in this regard. I hate to brag, but my making nice skills are pretty much Olympic level. If you think Usain Bolt is fast, you have never seen me flee conflict,...