health
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LOSING SLEEP OVER SLEEP?
Ever since I began wearing an OURA ring, I’ve become obsessed with my sleep. It’s called orthosomnia: I must get a perfect sleep number each night, or I’m devastated. If I wake up groggy but my score is 90, I bolt out of bed! If I wake feeling great but my score is 75, I droop. (I… Read more
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HOT UNDER THE COLLAR? TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!
Photo: I happened to look out a window when the Pocket Fire started in Sedona. Around age 11, I was on a tennis court with a neighborhood boy hitting balls around. It was summer and brutally hot. At one point, he took off his shirt and threw it on a chair, so I did too.… Read more
Advice, Commentary, Fire, health, Heat, Humor, Inspiration, life, Philosophy, summer, Wildfire, writing -
“WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK”–COLERIDGE
Recently, a water pipe burst under my kitchen sink causing a flood. I discovered this when I got up to pee in the middle of the night and began treading water. I spent the next 4 1/2 hours sloshing it outside with mops, mats and rags. Yesterday, a restoration team arrived, knocking out baseboards and… Read more
Advice, anxiety, Commentary, Fire, Flood, health, Humor, Inspiration, life, mental-health, Philosophy, stress -
magical thinking
I have a friend who cleans his sunglasses with paper money. He swears, “It keeps them cleaner longer.” However, the science says that’s not true. Paper, which is made from wood pulp, scratches lenses. So why is he convinced otherwise? Beats me. What matters is what he thinks—not what is. Neither truth nor science affect our decision making.… Read more
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NOW YOU SEE IT
I still remember every, single one of those metal staples being pulled out of me by pliers. That was just the surface pain. Underneath was a gut-wrenching trauma. As my surgeon breezily explained, “It’s brutal. I make a 10-inch incision across your knee and remove your knee cap. Then I saw your leg in half,… Read more
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S-T-R-E-T-C-H
You can see from this picture that I’m flexible. What you can’t see are my two, artificial knees, spinal scoliosis, achy hip and temperamental shoulder due to a long-ago dislocation. I started doing yoga in my teens, 50 years ago. Nothing fancy but I still do a little bit every day. Now, it only takes about 10 minutes a day to… Read more
AGEFULLY AGING 