Columnists

Looking Back… Final Goodbye

Issue 1.15

It’s time to say goodbye to this column after almost six years of writing Looking Back… Not moving away, just ready for a change. This column started in April 2008, a year after we moved to St. George and settled into our Sunriver retirement community. I joined several writing groups locally: Heritage Writers […]

Looking Back… Season of Change

Issue 51.14

As I’m approaching my 75th birthday next year, I’m amazed by how much there still is to learn about me. You think after living with myself all these years, I’d have become perfect, but I’m not. I still make mistakes, hurt others’ feelings, forget too easily lessons learned years ago. Guess I’m not […]

Looking Back… Failure and Faith

Issue 50.14

Each day is an opportunity for you to feel like a failure when your expectations aren’t met or doubts enter about your unknown future. As a young friend of mine said I feel so confused. My reply was: This is a world of confusion. So much is happening so fast, that’s it’s difficult […]

Looking Back… Rebellious Children

Issue 49.14

Into everyone’s life, there comes a difficult child or grandchild. In the olden days, they were sometimes called the black sheep of the family- the child that rebels against family values. Extremely independent, but insensitive to others’ needs, it can be a real struggle to interest this person in communicating with parents or […]

Looking Back… Adoptive And Step Parents

Issue 48.14

When a parent remarries after a divorce or separation or death of a spouse, it’s an adjustment for those involved especially the children. Acceptance of a new stepmom or stepdad is not automatic. It may never occur depending on the personalities involved. Time and patience plus unconditional acceptance will determine when and if […]

Looking Back… Complex Repairs

Issue 47.14

In our world today, complex family relationships are common with the number of individuals who divorce or die after marrying or separate after living together without marriage or remarry multiple times. All of this makes for step relationships as well as divided families. When I divorced 35 years ago, it was awkward to […]

Looking Back… Repairing Bridges

Issue 46.14

How do we close the gaps in our family relationships? By building a bridge of online communication! With the modern generation so enthralled with digital games, texting and social media, you can reach out and connect with them using the Internet. Time for an old dog to learn new tricks––if you want to […]

Looking Back… Bridges

Issue 45.14

I saw this quote on an online poster (at www.itsy.com) that impressed me: Family: Links to the Past and Bridges to the Future. We have only to look to our past, the lives of our parents and grandparents to see examples of honesty, hard work, integrity and unconditional love to understand how to […]

Looking Back… Family Links

Issue 44.14

A link is something that ties or connects two or more things together in some way. Families are full of connections or links among relatives because of their common backgrounds, culture, and experiences. As children grow and leave the home these commonalities can change and evolve. Hopefully there is still a common bond […]

Looking Back… Family Pride

 

Here’s a challenge-make a list of achievements that your parents or grandparents accomplished: 1. Both my mom and dad were the first to graduate from high school. My dad was the oldest in his family while my mom was the fourth child of five in her family.

2. My dad built a ham radio […]