Here we are for Day 2 of "December Delights!" Remember - the whole point of these posts is to consciously seek out the delightful things in the season and to avoid the hustle-bustle stress that December can so often turn into. For the "reverse Advent calendar," today add a box of mac 'n' cheese to … Continue reading December Delights – Day 2!
Like many people, I have a love/stress relationship with December. It can be such a wonderful, magical month (I'm a sucker for lights and good cheer) but it can also be a month of tension and anxiety (self-imposed pressure, mostly, but still . . .) That's a shame, I think. December is a festival month … Continue reading December Delights – Day 1
Being a "woman of a certain age" in the first part of the 21st century means that I have a unique set of skills, some of which seem hopelessly outdated. For example, in my shoulder-padded and spiral-perm-with-mousse high school days, I took "typing" class as opposed to "keyboarding." Entire class periods were devoted to typing … Continue reading Roses and Notes
Back in January, when I first embarked on my "year of roses," I wrote about the labor slogan "Bread and Roses," which was a rallying cry in the early part of the 20th century among working-class women for a living wage that permitted all workers - not just the "leisure class" - time to enjoy … Continue reading Roses and Bread
Regardless of pandemics, strife, and the sturm und drang of life, the Wheel of the Year continues to turn and my "year of roses" continues to progress. Today is the first official day of fall, which means that today is the autumnal equinox. I have learned over multiple trips around the sun that when Nature … Continue reading Roses and Fall
I never expected my "year of roses" to be quite so -- interesting. The last few weeks have been hectic as my small residential university prepared to re-open in a traditional face-to-face format in this incredibly challenging time. We've had our first full week of classes and we know we're in for some unique challenges … Continue reading Roses and Balance
Here in the Carolinas, we're in the "dog days" of summer. While the phrase identifying the rising of Orion's dog, Sirius, in the nighttime sky, may have originally been a harbinger of fever and catastrophe, the meaning of the phrase has morphed into a designation of the hottest days of the summer. (Then again, in … Continue reading Roses and Dog Days
We're officially into summer now. Spring was completely and totally weird, due to the pandemic. Think about it - many of us spent big chunks of that entire season inside. We learned how to sew masks (or at least, knew friends who did). We saw scarcity on grocery store shelves. We got used to some … Continue reading Roses and Summer
I realized the other day that my last "traditional day" at work was Friday, March 6. That's the day my midterm grades were due to be submitted and the next week was scheduled to be our spring break. Of course, that's not the way things worked out and I spent spring break in ways that … Continue reading Roses and Time
When I started this "roses" journey at the start of the year, I never anticipated how a virus would wreak havoc upon the world. In all the post-apocalyptic fiction I've read and watched, I cannot remember a single instance in which the human race triumphed by simply staying at home and watching Netflix. Movies, television, … Continue reading Roses and Cooperation