Playing Smash Bros taught me not to be afraid to suck
- At April 25, 2019
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Musings
0
My son studies physics at UMass Boston. He studies a lot but in his free time he enjoys playing video games. Like most his age, he has been playing an assortment of genres since he was six years old. So when he received a Nintendo Switch for Christmas last year, he wanted me to play with him … as a way of bonding, I guess. Or perhaps he thought it might be good for me to work out some aggressions. But I was intimidated.
Read More»Cozy Christmas – Celebrating Iceland’s Jolabokaflod
- At December 23, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Current Events, Experiences, Musings
- 4
The idea of being cozy. It is the absolute definition of self care during cold winter nights.
I learned a good deal about coziness when I was living in Scandinavia. This normally included big fluffy blankets, no less than five candles burning, and maybe a gathering of non-twinkling twinkle lights haphazardly arranged somewhere in a far corner.
Coziness extended outside of our homes as well. I very much loved the fact that during cooler months, and even in the dead of winter, some cafes in Gothenburg still offered outdoor seating complete with candles and blankets for those taking their coffee outside. There was just something so very beautiful about that, especially if the snow was falling.
In Denmark, coziness is referred to as hygge and in Sweden we embraced what was called fredagsmys or “cozy Friday”. Coziness is celebrated often as a tradition in these countries, but when well-embraced it becomes a lifestyle.
Read More»Failure to protect
- At October 05, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Current Events, Experiences
- 2
Once when I was in Gothenburg, I was abandoned on the street at one o’clock in the morning by my fiancé. The buses and trams stopped running that late at night and so while he jumped into a cab to get home, he left me behind. On purpose.
He was angry at me. I don’t know why, I rarely knew why. Maybe he had gotten embarrassed that evening or a comment was made by someone that he didn’t like, and as usual the anger and punishment was dealt to me.
I didn’t have the money to take a cab home myself. So when he phoned me from his ride, I asked him if he would he pay the fare for me when I got home. He told me to walk. He wasn’t going to pay two fares.
Read More»Podcasts for curious minds and broken hearts
- At June 12, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Wellness, Writing
- 2
It was a simpler life when our grandparents sat around on a Sunday evening in front of the radio listening to a weekly broadcast. Today, listening to podcasts allows us to recapture the relaxing and informative moments of a bygone era away from computer and TV screens. It really is a wonderful way to relax before bed or better endure a long travel trip.
Here are some podcasts that I’ve come to enjoy. May they serve to also inform you and renew your spirit:
Read More»Strength for broken spirits
- At June 04, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Editorial, Experiences
- 2
I cried yesterday. That doesn’t happen often. I cried until my eyes were swollen, my body exhausted, and the cats freaked out because they didn’t know what to do about me. But that is generally the way – most people (and evidently cats) don’t know how to react to someone’s sadness or tragedy.
The cause of yesterday’s crying jag might have been because I was working on my memoir and memories were stirring deep. It might have been because of the post I read by Final Girl over at Kelly Sundberg’s site*. Whatever the reason, that crying session felt really good.
While I’m not particularly prone to crying, I’ve done my fair share of boohooing over the last year and a half. I’ve shed tears because of family and friends who have been silent. I’ve cried because of arguments with my son as he tried to reach through my trauma. I’ve cried over triggers (always a surprise) and an assortment of issues which were really uncomfortable.
Yesterday was different. I cried for me. I cried for the person I was twenty years ago, the person I was seven years ago, three years ago, and for the person I am today. I apologized to all those women. Naive and trusting. Scared and alone. Empowered and strong.
***
People often tell me how strong I am. They have been telling me this all my life. They tell me so often that it has began to feel dismissive. So, what does it means to be strong and what does it mean when we are told we are strong?
Read More»The certainty of my uncertainty
- At May 03, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Editorial, Experiences, Features, Musings
- 4
No one teaches us how to think. It’s not something we learn in high school and it’s not until perhaps college where we may be instructed as to the fine art of critical thinking or logic and philosophy. Many of us make important decisions based on emotional thinking.
Several months ago, friends and I were sitting around my strangely colored living room drinking cocktails and discussing the state of things. “Things” in this case would be politics, divisions between genders and society, physics, magic, writing – we frequently have such discussions here in Boston. We are not afraid of expressing opinions and having gentle (sometimes not so gentle) debate.
I can’t remember the exact topic of conversation at the time but my son who is a student of physics at UMass Boston said to me, “Why are you always so certain about things?”
Read More»How living abroad can break your heart
- At April 23, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Experiences
- 2
It is something that many of us might aspire to – the adventure and romance of living abroad. And while for some it is all of that, with travel to nearby foreign countries, new friends and new languages, there are ways in which living abroad can break your heart – no matter how effortlessly you have managed to fit in to your host country.
Being away means exactly that. So when there are weddings, graduations, births, or funerals which take place in your home country and you can’t go, either due to work or financials, it can be a devastatingly lonely event for those who have chosen to live in another country. It might not even be something as traumatic as a death or as joyful as a marriage. It could simply be that one day you are walking down the street and are struck by a feeling – an all consuming heart-wrenching knowledge that someone you love very dearly is 3,582 miles away.
Read More»Oliver Sacks – Write as if you knew your death date
- At April 01, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Writing
- 0
I’ve become obsessed with the writings and lectures of Dr. Oliver Sacks. Not only was the man absolutely delightful – he had a sense of humor that often causes me chuckle through the lines of his essays and books – he was one of our greatest minds and a break-your-heart beautiful writer.
Sacks, a British neurologist and author, had an insatiable curiosity at what his website describes as “the far borderlands of neurological experience”. Through his writings for the general public, Sacks described for us conditions such as Tourette’s syndrome, Parkinsonism, migraines and musical hallucinations, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. He explored what it meant to be a conscious individual and how our brains make us who we are. Dr. Sacks wrote and lectured about these things so we could understand them, infecting his audience with that same sense of awe one might experience when learning something new about the universe.
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