Don’t take anything for granted
When you’re walking, be thankful that your ankles don’t hurt as they used to
Be thankful you live in a safe country
Be thankful that your children are healthy
Be thankful that you have a loving family
Be thankful that your cancer is under control
We take somethings for granted
Only when we lose them we realize what we had
I try to notice what I can be thankful for every day

June 1st, 2025

Why do we lie?

Why is honesty sometimes so hard?

Maybe we think we can go farther with a lie

Maybe we think we can benefit somehow

Sometimes we even lie about who we are

Pretending and acting is not hard 

Sometimes we lie to protect ourselves 

And avoid being caught

There is a price that we’re bound to pay though

And that price will appear like a stain on our soul

The soul is invisible of course, so we don’t see the stain 

But that stain remains and with every lie

Another stain is added as time goes by

The soul that is stained is not a happy soul

It’s not at peace

It seems our life is going well

But it’s not like that 

There can be regret and guilt 

“Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues”

May we grow and develop and choose honesty over deceit 

May 30th, 2025

My middle-school knitting teacher told us once

That hand-knit works are not meant to be perfect 

If we are looking for perfection

We should machine-knit the sweater 

Imperfections are what make our pieces  a genuine hand-knit item

Life is similar

If every decision we made or path we took, brought us to our final destination 

That would not be life

It would be a play

In life, we choose a path

On our way, we may get lost

We may get distracted 

We may go down the wrong road for a while

But as long as we persist

We’ll arrive at the destination

And if we don’t, that’s OK too

Life is messy

May 27, 2025

It takes a few seconds to destroy a whole neighborhood
And months to rebuild it
Why do we destroy land and buildings where civilians live?
Why do we fight over the ownership of cities and towns
How many innocent soldiers are lost
At the order of those who have bodyguards
Why don’t we value life at all
Sending young people to places
Where many will die
These soldiers and civilians have families
They will be missed immensely
I say the one who orders an attack
Should be in the front lines
Not in their comfortable residence or house

May 18, 2025

Don’t look for certainty in life

It’s a rare commodity

Will I do well at university?

Will I stay healthy for a long time?

Will my friends never leave?

The answer is maybe most of the time 

And what does one do with maybe? 

The uncertainty? 

Perhaps count one’s blessings

Take the right steps

And hope for the best

Then confront the challenges head on  when they come

This requires faith in oneself

Faith in the creator 

And the help of one’s friends 

Even answers that are negative teach us something 

May 14th, 2025

It’s cold and cloudy Saturday morning

And I’m at the mall doing Lida things

Which happens to be nothing today

Got my coffee beside me near the cafe

As all the tables are taken

And my notebook on my lap

Yes, I still write in notebooks from time to time

I’m reflecting on life

No matter what serious situation you are in

Someone else is dealing with worse

People don’t walk with their problem

Written on a piece of paper and stuck on their backs

So nobody knows what others are going through 

I see a small child in a stroller 

The childhood of our children is done

They are now adults, living their own lives

Sometime in the future grandchildren will come

That will be the beginning of a new era

Wow, that is a huge bun on top of that girl’s head

Standing in the coffee line

It looks like a nest sitting on her head

Must be heavy, I think to myself

These are things we do for beauty

I’m guilty of that too

Thank you for sharing my doing nothing time with me 

I find it very therapeutic

23 Nov 2024

Waiting in the waiting room

Looking at the names on the screen to see when my turn is 

Actually Albert does most of the looking 

While I doodle or read

Uncomfortable thoughts go round and round in my head

What was the result of the CT scan?

Will I have another surprise?

Most likely everything is fine 

But cancer is very unpredictable 

You are never totally out of the woods

Of course, in a normal life things can go wrong too and surprises can be around the corner 

But in my case, the possibilities are higher

When you are healthy you never suspect that an illness will come 

And ignorance is bliss 

But once you’ve had cancer the possibilities of a recurrence bother you 

And when illness returns, it’s a major thing

You can’t fix it that easily 

So, these are the things that go round and round in my head as I wait and wait for my name on the blue screen 

March 17, 2025

Do you sometimes wonder why

Our heads are in our phones so much?

I think it’s because our phones connect us to the world at large

We can write a friend who lives across the country

We can read the news, local and international 

We can check our bank account

We can write a poem in the waiting room and share it with our friends

The amount of communication open to us and the speed is mind boggling

Too much information sometimes?

Too many dog and cat videos?

Too influenced by influencers? 

Yes, there are those things too

Although dog videos are so cute 

We live in a world of instant communication 

We can plan events in a group on WhatsApp and Messenger 

We can find friends we haven’t seen for years

We can travel to many countries without going anywhere

We can have all our questions answered

We can solve our problems with YouTube videos

And I haven’t mentioned AI yet

What did we used to do without the internet? 

March 16th 2025