Tag Archives: how to live a better life

Life After Shingles

pain-lesson

“Bronwyn, call the cops!” Jerry hollered across the parking lot.

Jerry and I had stopped at the post office. I had just rushed inside to pick up a package while Jerry waited in the car. As I exited, I heard someone calling my name rather loudly. Is there another Bronwyn somewhere nearby? I didn’t know what to think.

That’s when I noticed Jerry standing in the middle of the parking lot, his face red with smoke pouring out of his ears.

What’s going on? I had left him seated calmly in the car. What had happened? read more

SHUSH! QUIET!

My quiet patio view.

My quiet patio view.

This past week I realized my life is too noisy. Maybe yours is too?

Here are some suggestions for correcting this “issue.”

To escape the noise:

Take a visit to Tucson and stay at the Hacienda del Sol resort. There, you can get a room with a patio that overlooks the Santa Catalina Mountains framing the Sonoran desert lit up in colorful wildflowers and scrub brush. Enjoy the quiet. Of course, you may still have the noise rattling around in your head and that could be a problem. But the desert in all its cactus glory utters nothing except for the occasional chatter of a bird. No political campaigns, no commercials talking about erectile dysfunction or how to lose 50 pounds on Nutrisystem. No whoosh of traffic, no trucks blowing their horn because you were reading a text message on your phone when traffic stopped and you didn’t notice it had started moving again, no landscapers shaping hedges with sputtering trimmers that sound like rocks in a blender. Just you and a peaceful desert breeze with the scenic view of creosote bush, teddy-bear cholla, and the deep pink blooms of the hedgehog cactus. read more

What I Learned From Fluffing Plastic Bags (and living a better life)

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

When you volunteer to work at the food bank, you probably think to yourself, I’m going to help people and that’s a good thing. I’m going to help people who have hit hard financial times and need a lift in their spirit as well as food in their cupboard.

You imagine the recipients will look upon you as a Mother Teresa-type, grateful to your sweet spirit of volunteerism of handing out turkeys and canned pumpkin and toys for the kids.

A week before Christmas, I showed up on time for my assigned volunteer shift,  ready for my Mother Teresa benevolence to begin. read more