It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to cook with or for my granddaughters. Before Covid, I picked them up from school each Wednesday, and we spent the afternoon together, then prepared dinner for the family. We made their favorite meals—pasta and marinara …

I made a happy discovery this week. I had just walked into my acupuncturist’s office, and was closing the door behind me, when I saw the woman whose appointment is just before mine coming down the hall. Holding the door open for her, I stepped …

Everybody makes jokes these days about being home and available 24/7. And though it’s nice to know how reachable we have all become, with nine months of sheltering in place, most of us are beginning to suffer from sameness. We wake up in the same …

Although not as social as I once was, I certainly enjoy spending time with people. What I like most are one-on-one interactions where the two of us can enter a conversation deeply. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to catch up on any personal …

I’m not a social media user. In fact, I tend to avoid them. My age is partly to blame. My generation is the telephone generation. While our parents used the telephone sparingly, my friends and I couldn’t get enough of it. My high school boyfriend …

Aquatic Park in Berkeley is not one of my favorite places for a walk. While it might appear serene and picturesque from a distance–with its wide stripe of water and green borders–it’s a bit seedy and run down up close, its walkways muddy and often …

Many of us have been feeling helpless for some time. For some of us, feeling out of control crept in shortly after the 2016 election. For those kind souls, the feeling intensified with the arrival of Covid. Now, Covid’s persistence and rising numbers have spread—and …

I’ve worked hard during Covid to keep my spirits up, but have to admit that lately I’ve been experiencing a lot of sameness in my life. While pre-Covid, each day was different from the last—lunch with a friend one day, a hike with another the …

I’m feeling particularly happy these days, thanks to refinancing my house. Not because I’ll be saving money every month–although of course I’m pleased about that. For an unexpected but related outcome. If you’ve ever refinanced your home, you know how frustrating and tedious the process …

So much negativity swirls around us these days. First there’s Covid and sheltering in place, which not only creates an atmosphere of threat weighing on each of us individually and all of us collectively, but severely limits our activities. Even a trip to the grocery …