I am a woman on a quest to live my best life, conquer my fears and inspire others to do the same. I started rock climbing at 52, cycling at 53 and canoed 160 miles on the Yukon River at 54. I am a very ordinary woman- not a super athlete! I just decided to say YES! to life...I hope the lessons I have learned on this journey will encourage you too!
I got the news this week that my best friend from childhood, Blake, had just lost his father – Bob. Bob was also one of my dad’s closest friends. But neither of those descriptions convey how important he was to me. March 1st will be 35 years since I lost my own dad. Bob was … More Memories of Bob
My friends, Tom and Stephanie, invited me over for dinner this week. They make dinner and I bring dessert and then we talk and laugh for hours! We hadn’t been able to see each other since mid-December so I brought their Christmas gifts as well. When Stephanie said, “and here is yours!” I was giddy. … More Seeing Through “Neruda” Eyes
April 1st is often one of my favorite days of the year – not because I am a prankster, but it is often Opening Day of Major League Baseball. Baseball has remained my friend and companion in many stages of my life especially during these last two summers of Covid-19 isolation and as the end … More Take Me Out to the Ball Game…An Ode to Baseball
“Let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry — old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling — and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner … More Let Us Begin Again…and again…and again
I was having a fleeting moment of organizational inspiration last week and was contemplating whether to keep my turquoise inlaid cowboy boots or not? I have hardly worn them since I moved three years ago. I gave the boots to myself for my 50th birthday. Then I pictured a future granddaughter, or great- granddaughter pulling … More A Cold Day in July to a Christmas Wedding
Today the sky is bright blue just the same as it was on this day 32 years ago that I said goodbye to my father. Durward Glenn Bradley was born in 1922 on a farm along Lick Creek near McAddoo Holler in Middle Tennessee the second oldest of six children. He eagerly left the farming … More Remembering Daddy…
My childhood best friend, Blake, called me today and I knew immediately what the news would be. His mother, Anne Neyland, had said her final farewell. The Neylands lived across the street from us and we went to church together. Mr. Neyland, Bob, was my dad’s best friend. Blake, my first best friend and his … More Anne~ My Eulogy for a Friend and Hero
My sister, Niecie, and I went to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee last weekend. We grew up just a few miles away in Bristol but she has lived in San Francisco for 25 years and this was her first visit to the festival. I have already told you more about her than I … More The Philosopher Quilt
“Are, are you, are you hap, are you happy? I, I want, I want you to be happy.” It took her several attempts to get the question out. These were the last words my mother ever spoke to me. How I answered is rather vague, I am sure I told her what was happening in … More Tressie-Memories of My Mother
Things to Think by Robert Bly is one of my favorite poems. The stanzas remind me I have a choice in the way I interpret the world. The poem begins with, “Think in ways you’ve never thought before…” … More Things to Think
Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting...
trauma, dissociation and embodiment
One is NOT Only 