Columns

By Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin Ben was a smart guy, but I’d like to add one item to his list: grief. Death is nearly, almost always accompanied by grief; it is a third certainty in our world. Last week, I wrote…

By Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” About a month after I lost my husband, I put together a tutorial of sorts for what to do (and not to do) when someone you love is grieving. It’s been more than a year since, and then and in that time I’ve gained myriad knowledge about the grief…

Jean Matua “From the Heart” Even as many of us hold our collective breaths hoping that an invasion of Ukraine does not happen (perhaps I’ll write more about that next week), we have the daily (and nightly) diversion of the 2022 Olympics in China. Imagine for a moment if our every-day tasks were like the…

Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” In the last year, I’ve been working on appreciation. Appreciating the big things. Appreciating the small things. Appreciating what I have and what I am. As part of that, I’ve been practicing appreciation of one of the most basic, most taken for granted, and one of the most awesome things…

Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” There’s something about a new year that often has me reflecting on time. I guess that’s fairly natural. For many of us, January is a time of assessing priorities, setting goals, wrapping up the old year and planning for what’s to come. This year, those thoughts were punctuated by a…

Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” Turning the calendar over to a new year is often a time of reflection, not only to look backward but also to look ahead. What can happen to make the future bigger and brighter? The past year has been overflowing with lessons for my life. It’s been a year of…

It’s that time of year. Out with the old, in with the new. It would be an understatement to say that I welcome the new. It would be more of an understatement that I still mourn the old. But I’m getting there. It’s been a year of hardship for me as well as a year…

By Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” Quite often, each morning before getting dressed I check my weather app to get the prediction for the upcoming day. Yesterday I caught myself hoping the sun would be shining and the skies blue. Then it dawned on me. There wasn’t a question whether the sun would be shining.…

I have been struggling to get into the Holiday season this year. The tree is up, but ornaments seem to be very slow going. Presents are bought, but only a few wrapped; and don’t even get me going on outdoor Christmas lights. Everything seems to take a mountain of effort. I’ve tried to remedy the…

Jill Pertler “Slices of Life” This could be a difficult time of year for me. It might be. A year ago, we were discovering my husband was gravely ill. We were on vacation when he entered the emergency room of the hospital – alone. It was during COVID. No visitors were allowed. Then, nine days…