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Nostalgia is old news. What does change is our attitude toward looking back. Reminiscing tends to get rosier, we discovered, when we went to St. Louis recently for a signing of Not Dead Yet at the Schlafly Library hosted by Left Bank Books. Here's a link to the talk, emceed by St. Louis Jewish Light's editor, Ellen Futterman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWyUfGzmAaE Getting on the plane to St. Louis got us out of our COVID bubble. For Barbara, it was the first time she had been on a plane in more than three years and revisiting St. Louis in six years after living...

While we care about how we look and what we wear--the style, cut, fabric, even the designer of our clothing or where we bought it, we would not claim to be women’s fashionistas. Far cry. When it comes to clothes shopping, we are pragmatic. We crave quick, convenient, affordable. Nothing long and drawn out like perusing the aisles of a store we love like some people we know used to enjoy pre-COVID-19. We like in and out, akin to a fast-food restaurant. We know what we need, and we think we know what looks best on us. However, during pandemic...

Spring is renewal, rebirth, a reboot. It offers a change in scenery and a lift to life. The idea that we can look forward to seeing flowers bloom in public spaces, at favorite nurseries and in our own yards, watch the bright kelly green grass come up and multi-colored flowers bud, gives us hope that a new season is emerging after the long dark, cold days of winter.  And this picture of rebirth is perhaps a metaphor for what we need to happen in the world right now. Will we emerge from this darkness into brightness and safety this season...

Some of us give too much and take too little whether with family or friends. When we're busy, there isn't time to think about the little things that eat away at us. However, lately, with more time on our hands as we still keep our social distance more than we used to, we've been thinking, seeing and feeling more intensely some of these feelings.  How do we continue to carry so much weight on our shoulders? It can make us sad, disappointed and at times a tad angry.  We came up with the concept of recalibration. Just as we adjust...

"MOM. How could you?" We hear it all the time from our kids when they are upset with some Mom-ism we've said or something we've done. We might answer with this Mom-ism, "I do not need you telling me what to do!" But we try not to get defensive and reply that way.  It may be because we heard our aging mothers say this to us when we told them they needed to eat better, see a doctor, stop driving, consider downsizing to one-story homes or stop critiquing us.  It got us thinking about all the clichés and verbal lessons...