Last week I heard a psychologist on the radio talk about how stressful Thanksgiving has become. She focused on the difficult choices people have to make about where to be for the holiday.  As families grow, in-laws, and other complications lead to impossible choices and conflicts. I think that thanksgiving includes understanding and forgiveness. Most importantly, in the words of the Rolling Stones...

Sometimes the most wonderful things can happen. Monday night I had the great good fortune to attend a screening of West Side Story, one of my all time favorite films.

  I think I have been in denial about winter coming to New York. It has been so warm recently that it just didn’t seem like this weather change was coming.

  A friend asked me to look at a text conversation on her phone last week. She thought it was funny and wanted to share it with me.  

There sure is a lot of bad news these days. Lots of killings - Paris, Israel, Mali. It is a pretty scary world. And some of the ideas about how to deal with it can be pretty scary too. Especially from you know who.   It's important to remember the good things, even if they don't make headlines. After all, this is the time of year to be grateful.  

A lot can happen in a moment...joy, sadness, excitment, pain, happiness, worry, stress, peacefulness...   Since my "insult" 8 months ago the most common question I'm asked is "Has the experience changed you in any way?"   Other than living with the trauma, I believe I am more in the moment. Of course other stuff gets in the way but I'm more likely to be present these days. It sounds cliche but the precisousness of life is something to be acknowledged and honored rather than pushed aside because you are in the pursuit of whatever goal you have.

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Recent events in Paris bring me back to September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. For several years, beginning in the late 1990's, we visited Paris with friends for a long weekend in December to celebrate Flo and our friend’s birthdays. In those early years, I found Parisians to be less-than-welcoming to Americans. The cause -- whether it was the language barrier or that they didn't care for tourists -- was unclear; however, it always seemed best not to be easily identified as American.