Reboot, Rejuvenate, Resurrect

THE WELL OR THE BUCKET We are a society always looking. Looking for what? We may not even know. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, voices bombard us with messages about what we should want and where we should search for it. I haven’t watched television in—well, I don’t remember the last time I watched television. Still, I have not escaped the bombardment: billboards, social media, and streaming ads tucked inside articles. We may have no idea what it is, yet we carr

FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN AN ORDINARY EVENING On August 16, 2026, at 6:10 AM, words, but not thoughts of my identity, previously hidden, became available to be written. I am a writer who writes about ordinary things because I am ordinary. I pay attention to ordinary things by immersing myself in ordinary life. I resonate with the words of Mies Van der Rohe “God hides in the details,” and the idiom “The devil is in the details.” Details are important. I spend a lot of tim

Bored? Don’t snore -Explore When my son was growing up, his declaration, “I am bored!” often met my raised eyebrow and a question: “What am I supposed to do about that?” We have barely scratched the surface of this world; there is never a good reason to be bored. Eventually, he stopped saying it. One of the attributes I admire most in my adult son is that he is never bored. I’d like to believe his father and I, quite unintentionally, gave him the gift of curiosity, the kind t

RIPE AND READY At our most recent family reunion, my husband’s eighty-year-old-plus aunt handed me a beautiful lemon from a tree in her yard. I was amazed by its size and its slightly lighter yellow skin, so different from the lemons I buy at the big box store. As she offered it, she said, “This will yield about three-fourths cup of juice.” Amazing, I thought—beautiful and juicy. When we arrived home, I placed the lemon on the kitchen counter and kept admiring that heavenly c

UNLIKELY ADDICTIONS What are you addicted to? Many, including me, would quickly reply, “nothing.” The word usually conjures up drugs, alcohol, porn, and other obvious dependencies. But what if addiction also hides in more acceptable places? May I suggest some possibilities: negative thinking, risk aversion, approval seeking, perfectionism, judgment, fear, unhealthy relationships, food, guilt, gossip, cellphones, the internet, and social media. The list could go on. These are