Author Archives: evagankiewiczmerkel

The photo in my last post was a good representation of my brain state that day.  Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemies.  It’s like the story about the cheese sandwich.  Two co-workers started eating lunch together daily.  Each day one of the workers looks into his lunch bag and sighs.  It’s another cheese sandwich.  HeContinue reading “Fog lifting”

6 February 2022 Gates speaks of mindfulness: Stop and move from thinking to feeling for a few breaths throughout the day. Keep coming back to your body and your breath until it becomes part of how you enjoy life. Then do what you enjoy. (p. 189, Meditations on Intention and Being)

27 January 2022 I am not a patient person.  As much as I enjoy a routine, I occasionally find tedium nerve-racking.  Waiting for someone to heal, especially when that someone seems to be in no hurry to do so, annoys me.  Of course, this is the completely wrong mindset to have when trying to supportContinue reading “For better or for worse”

13 January 2022 I am always amazed at how things seem to fall into place.  The goal of this post was to share what I’ve been reading over the past few months.  I had shared from Rolf Gates’ writing (and promised more), so I took a look at what the next chapter summarized.  It wasContinue reading “Reading list”

8 January 2022 Epiphany will never be the same for me.  The Twelfth Day of Christmas, Three Kings Day, used to be the target date for putting away the holiday decorations and blessing the new year.  Because of events on January 6, 2021, it will always now be the day this country crossed a line. Continue reading “Epiphany”

31 December 2021 I told myself that, if I didn’t write anything before then, I would do a post when I received my first retirement payment. That happened. So, what has mentally been kind of a six month “vacation,” has turned into “official” retirement. Not sure what I expected to feel other than maybe aContinue reading “New Normal, New Year”

12 December 2021 As a new transplant to The Keys, I’ve had friends ask about weather and seasons and what our new world is like. We had a wonderful time hosting some friends who were visiting the area this past week and this prompted me to finally put together a tongue in cheek “transplant” reflectionContinue reading “Just another day in paradise”

2 December 2021 Early in 2021, I started thinking about a milestone birthday coming up in November. Even though the big 6-0 was going to land on my favorite of all holidays, Thanksgiving, this was the first decade that was giving me some pause. I projected my thoughts to that day and decided that, ifContinue reading “You don’t want attention until you don’t get attention”

22 November 2021 We took a very quick, early Thanksgiving trip north to visit family and connect with a few friends. As unwelcome as the experience of snow was, it reminded us why we moved to Key Largo. Back home and back into our routine, Saturday was cleaning day. (SO exciting, I know!) I wasContinue reading “Invasion of the gecko”

11 November 2021 There’s just something about time change that triggers heightened emotions for me. I thought it would be different moving to a place where there’s less of a disruption in daylight patterns, but I guess not. Everything feels more intense, but it’s comforting to know that, once the winter solstice passes, everything willContinue reading “All about the emotions”