My girlfriend Mary came last night from Hawaii.  She finally separated from her husband.  I have known them as a couple for over 45 years.  Tom was always grandiose but he had the vision, playfulness and creativity to pull it off.  One Christmas in Michigan they had a Dickens party where everyone came in costumes and there were horse drawn sleigh rides in the snow. Mary and Tom moved to Hawaii and we visited them three times.  The last time, Tom seemed irritable, unrealistic, out…

My intern came this morning.  We talked about his students and he wondered why they choose to do things that are going to get them nowhere.  I suggested we need to know each person's story before we can figure out this answer, because the past lives in the present. Every day we carry forward the beliefs and reactions we learned in our childhoods.  We aren't really living right now free from our past.  That's why when people move to make a "fresh start", they just…

We live on the third floor and when I want to get hot water for a shower, I try to be a good citizen by collecting the initial cold water in a bucket.  I set the bucket next to the sink-- it's heavy.  Yesterday I set my cell phone on the sink and, you guessed it, bumped it into the bucket of water. I screamed, grabbed it, set it in front of a heater and put it in a bag of rice, hoping it would…

People ask me why I'm still working at age 72: I could be retired.  It's partly because I want a reason to get dressed up, play with my clothes and accessorize.  And also because after so many years of experience, I know a lot about a lot of things and I can sometimes be really helpful to someone.  What fun it is to see someone grow, change, find happiness and develop self-esteem.  That keeps me working. "Work is love made visible."  Khalil Gibran