By NANCY PATRICK Many of us will talk about the hardships of the year 2020 for a long time. This year has indeed made life difficult for more than one reason. Even though 2021 has begun, I include the recent hardships of the deadly winter in the difficult year that began last March when the COVID pandemic began. I had

By NANCY PATRICK As we approach the season of Lent, many people contemplate “giving up something” (sacrificing) to represent the sacrifice Christ made for his disciples. I don’t always participate in Lent, but I’ve thought about it more this year than usual—probably because of the tremendous hardship and involuntary sacrifice 2020 has inflicted on so much of humanity. My retirement

By NANCY PATRICK As an English teacher, I sometimes taught literature written by authors who used a writing technique called stream-of-consciousness. That term refers to the basic idea of allowing a narrator to tell the story without any chronology, structure, or other narrative form.   Stream-of-consciousness resembles live-streaming events online. It captures whatever happens without any editing. I use the term

By NANCY PATRICK Honestly, no one ever labeled me a super-woman, and I hope I have not become an insufferable wimp. I do confess that hyperbole appeals to me; my husband Mike calls it exaggeration and a tendency to see life’s situations as all or nothing thinking.  As a school girl, I demanded of myself that I make all A’s

By NANCY PATRICK You probably remember a comedian named Jeff Foxworthy whose fame rests on his act that begins, “You know you’re a redneck when…” I have never thought of myself as a redneck, but neither had I realized that I might possess hillbilly blood until the recent Nexflix production Hillbilly Elegy aired. If you watch it, Glenn Close’s character

By NANCY PATRICK Successful people understand the value of life-long learning. I acknowledge that keeping my mind active by learning new skills and concepts will stave off brain laziness. On the other hand, I confess that I no longer learn as eagerly as I once did. I realized this in the early ’90s when I took on a new teaching

By NANCY PATRICK Thanksgiving holds special significance for me because my wedding anniversary always falls during the week of Thanksgiving. This current one, November 23, marks the fifty-second for Mike and me. Anyone who has maintained a long-term marriage understands when I say, “I don’t know where the time has gone.” In some ways, I can’t remember life before marriage,

By NANCY PATRICK Now that we have cast our ballots for our president for the next four years, approximately half our population feels devastated. Regardless of the ballot I cast, I understand that it appalled another person who voted for the other candidate. As I write this, I do not know the outcome, but I believe my thoughts and feelings