Charley and I just returned from our annual trip to Washington DC for the Zero Prostate Cancer Summit. Charley is an 11-year prostate cancer survivor as are the others who attend these meetings every year with their advocates. I’m an advocate. Some family and friends who were caretakers come alone. Their loved ones didn’t survive … More When They Come Home
It’s snowing today in Rhode Island and it’s the third major storm we’ve had in the past two weeks. But on Tuesday, February 27th, in Washington, DC, we enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous preview of what spring will be like in just a few more weeks. Charley and I flew to our Capital to attend the … More Choices
Last Sunday Charley and I took a walk together. We love to walk around holding hands, but this was a bit different. It was a 5K walk/run fundraiser for the group that is helping Charley in his quest to end cancer – to find a cure for this disease – ZERO-The End of Prostate Cancer. … More Sunday Morning Holding Hands
Edith Wharton had a vivid imagination. As a child, she loved to play a game she called “Making up” which involved inventing stories as, book in hand, she walked around feverishly chanting as if in a trance. This caused her parents much consternation. When friends came to play, she asked her mother to entertain them … More Edith’s Vivid Imagination
We’ve had a busy few days up in the Berkshires, mixing book business with fun. Our primary purpose was to check with the places carrying my children’s books to see if they needed more copies. And on Tuesday, I was scheduled to read with families at The Mount, home of the writer Edith Wharton. (But … More I Visited Utopia Today
In the last three weeks I’ve aged ten years.Well, maybe I just look like I’ve aged ten years? I think Charley may have aged twenty years, but he still looks great. The premature aging is a direct result of trying to get this “cursed” book (that’s what we are now calling it) completed in time … More What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Today is Charley’s Birthday! As many of you know, my husband is a cancer survivor, in remission, but still involved in clinical studies to find the cure. We were in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins this week and after all of the regular hospital stuff, we took time to walk around the Inner Harbor and have … More On Gallivanting
The month of April was one of the best ever. Charley decided that since it was my Birthday, I should have an entire Birthday Month. Now, I’m not big on cards and gifts and parties. I’m extremely pragmatic and he is well-aware of this. When he asked me to marry him, he wanted to buy … More Lovely April
I’ve been informed by WordPress that it is the two-year anniversary of my blog Around ZuZu’s Barn and it brought back many memories from the early days when I was even more clueless about this social media stuff than I am today. If it wasn’t for my Rhode Island friends, Rob Bentley and Peg Goter, … More Anniversaries and Friends
I’ve written about Sanctuaries in past blog posts. It’s a favorite theme of mine – those places where we can speak freely, laugh loudly, cry quietly, seek peace, find companionship. In our minds, “Sanctuary” can conjure up a myriad of images – places where we feel safe. But safe places are not solely dependent upon … More Among the Safety of Other Survivors
I’m a klutz. I tend to trip and stumble and drop things on a regular basis. The closer to the ground I am, the safer I’ll stay. I guess it’s because my thoughts are always racing and my body just can’t keep pace? When I find myself in a gift shop or museum surrounded by … More Living in a Glass Menagerie
Norman Rockwell was one of America’s foremost artist illustrators. He once commented on not having an idyllic life and how this affected his work. “Maybe as I grew up and found the world wasn’t the perfect place I had thought it to be, I unconsciously decided that if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should … More An Old-Fashioned Christmas
Around ZuZu's Barn 