I had a rough day today. I woke-up after a sleepless night with a body-racking cough. Stumbled downstairs in the dark, only to be faced with Nate’s balled-up white shirt and sock on the counter… a reminder of the dinnertime “ketchup explosion” two nights ago. The new box of cold delivered…
Sometime in November, Jacob experienced his first case of heartburn. I’m not exactly sure what we had for dinner that night, but he came to me on the couch, complaining that his heart hurt. He was pressing on his chest and breathing deeply and anxiously pacing back and forth. I…
Crazy to think that this past autumn, almost exactly twenty years ago, I met James in college here in San Luis. And it took us all that time to strategize and plan and finally make it back… We still laugh about the Valentine’s Day when he took me to dinner…
First, I went to school. Second, I did all of my classes, and then this is where it begins: I went to my backpack and got my bag of sweets and Valentine’s cards. They have Ninja Turtles and smell like pepperoni pizza. Then I passed them out to everyone in the “yellow” group.…
It’s the end of Week Two and I’m sure you’re all wondering… Where is Jaimie? How is James doing? Why haven’t there been any updates on the blog? What is HA-PPEN-ING? In a word: bedtime. I’ve been putting Jacob to bed twelve times a night. And then it’s 10:30 and…
We’re part way into Week Two and it’s raining. It’s raining so much in Santa Cruz that James is trapped over the hill and has to spend the night at Matt and Dr. Antsy’s. Hopefully things will clear up and he won’t have to rent a helicopter to rescue Granddad and…
It’s Sunday night and we’ve survived Week One of our Six Week Retreat of Healing. James has been settling-in at Granddad and Grandma Suzy’s this week, commuting to Los Gatos for his daily radiation treatments, and doing his best to balance staying busy and not wearing himself out. He had…
Over the holiday break, Granddad held a neighborhood pony party, complete with miniature neighbors and miniature ponies. It was great. During the party, Jakey Crockett and Nathaniel Boone palled around with their buddy Jack and the Beanstalk (this nickname will become apparent later on), climbing trees and fences and ponies. Meanwhile,…
Many years ago, my dear friend Kristen was on an airplane. She’s eagerly looking forward to cracking her big new Harry Potter book for several hours of cross-country magical mayhem when an older gentleman, sitting next to her, decides to chat her up, “Is that one of those books about…
My last three jobs primarily focused on large-scale change initiatives… helping people and organizations to understand, absorb and accept a constant stream of changes, both big and small. We used to talk a lot about “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.” We focused on listening. We emphasized and reemphasized what was important.…