I stopped smoking two weeks ago. I’m feeling pretty good about my progress. I didn’t tell anyone for the first week. I didn’t want the pressure of expectations. I didn’t want to try and fail publicly again. Not advertising again seemed prudent. I did some other things differently too. I didn’t make sure to quit first thing on a Monday morning. I didn’t make sure … Continue reading Two weeks and counting, and I’m chuffed.
I’ve been studying religion of late. I’m currently taking a course about Christianity. I remember more than I thought. There’s also much I didn’t know. I just finished day seven: “Death and resurrection, violence, suffering, and justice.” These topics were not emphasized in Sunday school. There is darkness in the Bible. There’s violence, pain, and a great deal of death. I have questions about what … Continue reading Suffering is optional.
I didn’t think I was still bothered by death. We’re not unacquainted, after all. I thought I had more equanimity about the process. I can talk the talk. We’re dying from the moment we’re born. We’re mortal. The clock starts ticking the moment we first draw breath. None of us knows when our time is up. Death isn’t a tragedy; it’s simply a function of … Continue reading So. Death.
I’m a “lady of a certain age”. That’s the term from the historical romances I have an affection for, though in those books, “a certain age” for women is anything over the age of twenty-two. I’m well-past twenty-two and have the eye cream to prove it. And yet, I don’t feel different from when I wasn’t “over the hill”. In my head, I’m as I … Continue reading A certain age and chin hair.
