Growing Bolder Community

(Readers’ note: The following is not a sunshine and flowers musing.) There are so many ways of dying. There is a multitude of illnesses that can cause it. There are various ways of dying in accidents – cars, trains or planes as they say. One may be the victim of a violent crime which results in murder. It may be just a matter of old age and our bodies wearing out. In all those...

Shortly before turning 60, I decided to change my lifestyle so I could lose 62 pounds and recover the size and energy of my youth. Nearly ten years later, I’ve attained most of the goals I initially set for myself. Yet ironically enough, unless I am careful, focusing on goals can easily undermine my ability to stay fit.For years, I dieted and exercised just enough to lose pounds and inches. The...

Meanwhile in what passes for the news media... I'm sorry, I wish I could complain about this...

One of the more regrettable moments in my life occurred when I was only twelve years old. As a sixth grader, I found myself trapped in that nether world--still a proud member of the He-Man’s Woman Haters Club, yet suddenly aware that the opposite sex offered an attraction far more alluring than being an easy target for the weekly dodge ball game. One day after school my friend Louie had a...

One of my guilty pleasures –as it turns out, I have a few of them-- is pickles. Under the cover of darkness, when no one is looking (guilty pleasures are best carried out clandestinely), and armed only with a cocktail fork stolen from my best friend, Booger Wadsworth’s last birthday bash, I do a shifty-eyed slink into the kitchen. No plate, no napkin. Just me … the fork … and a jar of...

A little over two years ago, I suffered from depression. I gave up the career I thought I had always wanted to be full-time stay-at-home mom. I suddenly found myself no longer the same person. I was no longer contributing an income and our financial picture became ‘tight’ to say the least. This was a huge change for me – not just for the amount of income change, but also because I had...

It is a well established fact that in America, Casey Marie Anthony is not guilty of murdering her daughter - not yet, anyway, and no matter what we think, it will take a jury of her peers to make that determination. Until then, she is presumed innocent and all we can do is speculate. No matter what the outcome next year, I truly believe her name will be synonymous with Lizzie Borden's. Lizzie, of...

Growing up in a very small town of about 800 people, your religion was part of your profile. Mine happened to be Catholic – and still is. However, a few years ago, I began to ask a lot of questions. Being a catechist since the age of sixteen, a liturgy committee member for five years, and so on; you would have thought that I knew what my ‘role’ was. Call it an early onset of a midlife...

Depression warning signs & understanding what to do about it A special report from Dwight Bain & the LifeWorks Group of Counselors Recently the Associated Press reported that long-time TV journalist Dick Cavett, struggled with clinical depression for decades. This is amazing because at the height of his career, he was more popular than Larry King and Regis put together. He described his...