For so many years, my mother was my North Star. After she died, I realized I had internalized many of her life lessons – along with a modicum of her amazing creativity and her unending zest for life – all residing securely within me in my gut. Thus, after she passed away, my own gut became Continue reading
Author: Iris Ruth Pastor
And I Couldn’t Have Been Happier…
People say becoming a grandparent is like falling in love. I never understood that until I became a grandmother. And then I understood it powerfully. I simply couldn’t get enough of those grand babies. Facetime. Real time. Any time. I thought about my grandkids constantly. I gazed at their pictures obsessively. I counted the days until I would see them once again.And when I Continue reading
A Shocking Revelation
My husband and I recently traveled to Connecticut and New Jersey for a whirlwind three days jammed packed with seeing three of our sons and their families. I let it all go. E-mails went unanswered. Texts flooding my phone got no responses. I ordered nothing from Amazon. And I didn’t key into my Tasks app once. However, anxiety about Continue reading
Help! I’m drowning in endless minutiae!!!!
Drowning in minutiae? Longing to embrace a life less harnessed to your To-Do List? Read on…. Every three months a super glossy magazine comes out called “Where Women Create – Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women.” Published by Stampington &Company’s Somerset Studio, it’s a delight to the senses – filled with feature articles on women Continue reading
When the Unspeakable Happens Again
As April 15 approaches, I run the same column I do every year in memory of the very best friend I ever had. This year I’m running my letter to her in shortened form because there is an update… Dear Andrea, On April 15, 2026, it will be fifty-one years since I’ve seen you. No one knows Continue reading
It’s Always the Same Routine…Until It Isn’t
It’s always the same routine: Why?Because for so many years, whenever I returned home, my parents waited eagerly at the top of that same escalator for the first glance of me, their eldest child, returning home. It is an unusually warm, balmy night for the month of March in Ohio. I pull-up to snap a Continue reading
Who in the Hell Can You Trust?
I’ve been scammed and it’s a harrowing experience. Once scammed, the experience stays with you – like a nagging tooth ache that continuously sears through your consciousness. Nagging questions keep me up at night: Falling into my inbox is an alert from “UPS” signalling an undeliverable package. SCAM. Popping up on my cell phone is Continue reading
A Life Lesson from a Dozen Red Roses
The whole saga starts on a routine run to my favorite local thrift shop on “Senior Citizen Discount Day”. Haphazardly displayed behind leftover Christmas ornaments, I spot this totally funky vase and buy it on the spot I make a promise to myself to fill it with deep red blood-colored roses. I intuitively know it Continue reading
My Second Happy Place
Confession: I don’t like football. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have nothing against football except its violence and a player’s proclivity to serious injury. And the fact that I still don’t totally understand it – even after having raised five sons who all seem to grasp the finer points of the game. But, I Continue reading
An Unusual Way to Get Close to my Granddaughter
My son and his 15-year-old daughtercame to visit my husband and me.And when they left 3 words did I feel:Blessed. Grateful. And Lonely. I wanted to keep a piece of my granddaughterclose – with easy access.So I asked her for her favorite song playlist.And hit upon great success. Why? I could understand the singers’ words –relate to Continue reading