Widowing Empty Nests

Russian Mountains

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

10 February 2020 Photo by Pedro Velasco on Unsplash Last week, on Thursday 6th February, I was having “a good day”. I had been for a long swim early in the morning and felt good in the water. I had a calm-ish day planned in the beautiful office space I have on Thursdays – just a few calls […]

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Life After Death Through Three Lenses of Change

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

Photo by Simeon Muller on Unsplash 3 February 2020 In my recent experience learning about Human Systems Dynamics, one of the frameworks I was introduced to was called “Three Kinds of Change”. It posits that there are three types of change we face, and knowing what kind we are experiencing is important to helping us find appropriate ways […]

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A Good Week?

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

27 January 2020 It’s been a good week. By most objective and subjective measures, it’s been a good week. For me. And I realise it’s been a horrendous week and few days for anyone who is newly widowed, grieving, going through date landmines, dealing with death-admin. I am not a follower of Basketball, American or […]

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Sticky Issues

April 19, 2024 No Comments

Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash 20 January 2020 When I was turning 20, (back in the last millennium, and indeed more than a decade before its end), a few people asked me, “what do you want for your 20th birthday?” I answered, “Twenty years between now and when I am 30”. I thought it was a very […]

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Too Many Deaths. Really. That’s Enough.

April 19, 2024 2 Comments

12 January 2020 I have just come back from what should have been two lovely days away with my Medjool. My new love. My number two. (Not Second Best. Just Number Two. Subtle but Important difference). Some of our time away was lovely – truly relaxing, soothing, stunningly beautiful, comforting, renewing, and more. And some […]

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997, 998, 999, 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003, et seq ad infinitum et ad nauseam

April 19, 2024 No Comments

3 January 2020 Today is Friday 3rd January 2020. 3/1/2020 Or 1/3/2020 if you’re somewhere in North America, but that looks plain wrong to me. And anyway, that would be my dad’s birthday, 1st March. Not my uncle’s birthday, 3rd January. Both healthy, sporty, fit 81-year old men. 82 now for my uncle. Today is […]

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Mixed Emotions

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

25 December 2019 I noticed that Kelley Lynn put up a couple of lovely questions on her Facebook page in the run-up to Christmas. It went along the lines of: Tell me, what/who are you missing? And if you’re joyful, then say more about that It’s Christmas morning, and I am sitting in bed. No […]

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Pizza Toppings

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

22 December 2019 At home I have a big bathroom. Built and decorated by Mike. So big that it has two basins, each with a mirror above it. “His ‘n’ Hers”. Two basins are not common in European bathrooms. Houses don’t usually have the space. In between the basins and the mirrors, stuck to the […]

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Bah Humbug!

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

16th December 2019 I am trying to get festive. I really am. But little things tick me off. Like Christmas decorations. Particularly the really garish ones. And the plastic snowmen. The ones in our house are okay. Right now, that’s the sum total of an undecorated Christmas tree. And fairy lights that never actually went […]

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Self-Care, Help and Comfort

April 19, 2024 1 Comment

8th December 2019 I have been pondering comfort, self-care, and help – what each of them is, to me, and what makes one or other easier and/or more accessible than another. Here is where I am at. And no, I have done no Googling or other research into what each of them is. Just research […]

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