“Marge actually line dances with her walker!” beamed Edna. We were gathered around the elevator at the independent living center having a lively discussion about walkers. Mom was talking about the possibilities of replacing hers and was getting all kinds of advice. She was deciding about moving to this amazing facility - it was like a small city of activity and joy. We continued our tour, maneuvering mom and her walker through all the opportunities available to her. Later t

I never expected oxen to teach me how to build a life, but here we are. The rains have turned my Costa Rica building site into a river of mud. Trucks stalled. Work halted. A frustrating failure of machines and a clock still ticking on deadlines. And then my brilliant project manager sent me a photo that made me gasp. This photo will be framed and live as an important part of the story of this journey. He stepped back to look and the problem and then went old school ... Oxen.

As I bemoaned my outcast state one day in the middle of moving, I was hunched disconsolately in just one of the rooms of my huge house looking at empty walls, barren bookcases and cabinets. It was so much work - Sorting, tossing, and packing at least 22 years in that house and all that I had dragged along from the decades before. My brain was exhausted from decision-making, my arms and back sore from stacking box after box in the garage to prepare for the movers. And still