I was in attendance last night at the regular meeting of Gotham's LI Dinner group.  It was really cold out.  My recovering sciatica wasn't feeling so great and I hesitated.  But, I had promised to attend and so I did.I am so happy that I didn't give in to my initial inclination.  Sitting around that table, cleanly and masterfully chaired by Shawn Bernabeu and Crysti Farra (with a little help of course from the one and only Rosalia), I was taken with how good this meeting felt.

I was reading an interesting article on MSNBC. Maria Shriver had interviewed, on The Today Show, a woman who claim to have died, passed into the afterlife, and came back to life. She described her experience in the afterlife.The article made me think about my own beliefs about the afterlife. My husband will emphatically tell you that he does not believe in an afterlife, “Once you’re gone, you are gone.” 

This blog arrives as part of a commentary posted in this space mid-summer. Of course then a second surgery (first was left hip replacement) was not necessarily anticipated but that need became apparent during a November post-operation follow-up with my extraordinary surgeon, Dr Gwo-Chin Lee.

A lot of people don’t actually want solutions; they want to feel morally right.Why? Because feeling right is fast and easy.Actually fixing problems is slow, boring, and messy.Real change means compromise, listening to people you don’t like, and admitting you might be wrong.It seems that a lot of people hate doing that.

We all have one life and we are in it together and together we should/must lean in (commit completely or more fully to something of significance, especially when faced with difficulty or resistance)! Lean in with decency, morality, loyalty, honesty, empathy, humanity, ferocity and sincerity . You/we are not alone!Now's the time. Stand up. Lean in with me!As my granddaughter Maggie says "Kindness is free" :)

Three days till Super Bowl Sunday and my Seattle Seahawks hats - baseball and ski cap - have been out for a few weeks evoking many comments. All positive so far, although I wouldn’t expect many Patriots fans in my New York neighborhoods.The hats - and being a remote fan of the Seahawks - were generated from my daughter’s years in Seattle. Appropriate souvenirs from many visits.

When it comes to being competitive, the only one I compete with is myself.I set goals and lay out detailed plans for achieving them. It keeps me organized and offers a degree of certainty – not in the outcome but in my ability to get things done and allow for things to go sideways.Whether it’s my workout schedule which includes running, strength training and my ongoing battle with the heavy bag; my business which is entering its 19th year; or my personal life, I have a vision of what I want it to look like, a plan for what I need to do make that a reality, and a task list.

Technology dependence is real.I am sitting here tonight twitching because my reMarkable is behaving weirdly.  Let’s put aside that the battery is drained and it is charging oh so slowly, I’ve discovered a phenomenon called “ghosting.” Who knew?Ghosting in this context means that when you move to a screen the old screen stays every so faintly in view – like a ghost.  I’ve tried rebooting the device, letting it rest for a bit, changing the page.  All to no avail.  As I sit here the ghosts remain.