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Take a break

My husband Jerry read me another article about how long this virus crisis may last and how our lives may be changed forever. “Stop,” I told him. “I don’t want to hear it.” I will stay informed, but I am going to take a break now and then from all of the depressing news. –Joy

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Bewildered

“Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept,” says Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Interpreter of Maladies. “As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”

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Content with silence

I found this short poem by Ansel Adams during the silent retreat I attended recently. When words become unclear, I shall focus on photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. –Joy

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The most common complaint

In her book Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout writes: She was “a woman who suffered only from the most common complaint of all: Life had simply not been what she thought it would be.” I’ve decided that Strout is one of my favorite authors, and I just read, both for the second time, her books […]

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The celebrity version of yourself

Too often we fear revealing ourselves as flawed, writes Ana Marie Cox in the June 13, 2018, issue of The Dallas Morning News. We create a gap between the “celebrity version” of ourselves and the version we prefer to keep hidden. That’s why we often are so generous to others. “When we see that messy, […]

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Everything is more complicated

Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume—and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life,” says Dr. Hope Jahren, a geochemist and geobiologist. She spoke at the Dallas Women’s Foundation’s 32 annual luncheon in October.

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Simple or complex?

“Everything is simpler than you think, and, at the same time, more complex than you imagine,” Goethe once said. My favorite Goethe quote is: “Whatever you can do or believe you can, begin it.” However, Goethe has a number of other quotes I really like—and some people contend that my favorite Goethe quote didn’t really […]

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Slow down!

I was too busy, hurrying, one day last week, trying to accomplish lots of things, marking items off my to-do list, when I remembered a lovely poem. I found it, and it inspired me to slow down a bit. I will not hurry through this day! Lord, I will listen by the way To humming […]

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The Golden Age of Advice

Today, there aren’t as many rules, writes Lily Rothman in the November 2, 2015, issue of Time. This country is diverse, and social norms are constantly being challenged and redefined. “This is overwhelmingly a good thing,” Rothman concludes. But sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to do. That’s why we have an abundance of […]

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The good intentions of a busy woman

Today, sometimes when I think I’m busy, I remember all that I used to do when I was running my business and running after two active children at the same time. I was reminded of those action-packed days when I found an entry in my journal from April 2009. The entry was about a thank […]

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