Life Lessons - Learned and Still to Learn

Once my cataract surgery had been completed, I immediately logged onto Disney+ so I could watch "Get Back." Instead of bingeing, I decided to watch it in hour-long increments. I wanted it to last longer; I wanted to savour each moment. The first thing that struck me when I started watching was how much watching The Beatles felt like watching old friends. Funny how the artists we grow up enjoying can feel so familiar. I remember, after John died, dreaming that he had been a good friend. The sense of familiar comfort was and obviously is still so strong. The Beatles were the soundtrack to my childhood. They appeared on Ed Sullivan two days after my eighth birthday. When my mother arrived at school to pick us up on Monday afternoon, she nearly squealed with delight when she handed us the flat, square paper bag that contained the 45 of "I Want to Hold Your Hand." And thus began the entire family's love affair with The Beatles.  We had had some ad...

I was raised in a home where dinner time often reflected the French salons of the Enlightenment (minus the powdered wigs and corsets). Our meals lasted for hours because of the incredibly engaging conversations that took place around the table. This was true of our immediate family and, more so, during one of the many dinner parties my parents hosted. When I was younger, I continued this tradition and hosted many dinner parties over the years. Because of that history, I find solitary meals incredibly boring and, to an extent, depressing. Cooking a full dinner, complete with all the necessary nutritional requirements, is a real chore. I love to cook, but I find cooking for myself quite boring and tedious. And I rarely do more than a main course when cooking for myself. And that makes me worry about eating properly. Despite the fact that I have a wonderful wheelchair-adapted kitchen, there are still limits to my abilities because of pain. I refuse to return to frozen prepared meals. The...