Dear 2024, Fourteen years ago, when I was in the middle of a five-month road trip driving around the country seeking shama (inner peace), I started an annual tradition of writing a letter to the new year. I’ve largely kept all my resolutions, and I like to think that they have helped me grow with […]
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“Is this weird?” Our eyes met and we burst out laughing. The windshield wipers squeaked in response, as if to drive home the point that this was, indeed, very weird. It was Easter Sunday. My husband, Eric, and I had been in the backseat of an Uber for the past 45 minutes. Our suitcases were […]
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How is it that we are living through an unthinkable period in world history? If presented with a screenplay that included everything we are experiencing, the former Hollywood executive in me would say that there is no way that all this tragedy—all at once—would be believable in a movie. We are living through it in […]
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Pearl and Maude are the new regulars at our woodsy New Jersey home that we call Shama Sanctuary. Pearl has close-set beady eyes and carries with her an air of superiority. She’s a bully, snorting and chasing off the twin orphans, Precious and Petunia, who are yearning for companionship. To show her dominance she’ll […]
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It’s now been 15 weeks since “The Pomeranian Incident.” At times it was tempting to feel sorry for myself with the feeling that the world was passing me by. This bone break is a beast, and the long recovery period from a tibial plateau fracture (TPF) is something that can’t be avoided or rushed. It […]
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I’ve struggled to write this post about my recent injury. I usually blog when I glean some personal insight into finding shama/inner-peace. But the story I’m about to tell will continue for quite some time, and I have no idea when the ending will play out (months, years?). Eric and I quietly and privately got […]
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We are living at the Holiday Inn. I felt like I lived out of hotels when Yoda and I drove around the country. And sometimes I feel like I live out of hotels with all the traveling Eric and I do. But this time is different. This isn’t by choice and doesn’t have anything to […]
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It’s been six months. In the love letter I read to Yoda minutes before he transitioned to formlessness, I promised him I would find shama amidst the grief of losing him. A promise made on a deathbed is a promise one must keep. Yet I had absolutely no idea how to find inner peace while […]
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Three weeks ago my precious Yoda left this world. Eric and I decided we wanted to set him free with a celebration of his large life. The last day of his life began with baking a “Yoda Pie” in his honor. The three of us ate the pie for lunch, and Yoda devoured his piece […]
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I said goodbye to my furry shama warrior on Tuesday night. My friend Dorry Bless, a Life-Cycle Celebrant, conducted a beautiful ceremony celebrating his life, and then he was set free in Eric’s and my arms in the studio next to the grand piano, his favorite place in the house. I read him this thank […]
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