“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” ― Simone de Beauvoir
The photo on the right was me six years ago. After years of failing to control my weight and pretending that I was going to do something about it, something clicked and I was able to shed weight rapidly and reasonably healthily. After a six-month diet (that extended to eighteen months) I lost a significant amount of weight, and more importantly, felt better than I...
Through the connection offered by Facebook, I learned some sad news this weekend that a classmate from high school had suffered a heart attack and, as a result, had been placed in a medically-induced coma. At a time in my life when I still like to pretend that I am as young and spry as I was in high school, the news came as a tremendous shock, as well as a reminder...
While this was the year I finally read the Harry Potter series and revisited some old favorites like Jose Saramago’s The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, I also managed to read a collection of surprising and interesting titles that were neither about wizards and witches nor books I had read and loved before. Of the 80 or so books I read this year, these were...
My first day on the Camino was arduous and exhilarating all at once—and only slightly interrupted by disaster! When I left St. Jean Pied de Port this morning, the city was covered in a light fog that stretched out for the first hour before the sun burned it away, revealing a verdant, lush set of valleys and hills that I eagerly set out to cross. I even found myself...
My dad returned just when I needed him most. The first fiery red bumps announced their presence on my face and arms the day he came home, the day he came home for the last time, to say goodbye. Sitting there in his battered old red pickup truck, I furiously scratched my skin, waiting for him to come out of the bar, where he had stopped in for “a quick...