Cooking. The basics for life. A human necessity. Eating good food brings comfort, so we align ourselves with comfort food. Creature comforts are not frivolous; they are necessities for a happier and more positive outlook on life and living.

Our real estate agent commented that one of the things on everyone's list of home buying is a water feature. The lake. A rental lakefront. Who wouldn’t love it? We survived the first winter. Barely.

Why do we want to live by the water? It bathes you – ocean, lakes, and streams. The babbling brook. The shimmering tops of currents in the sunlight. It’s life. Birth. Sexuality. Being human.

When the recent cyclone bomb hit an enormous swath of North America, I understood the meaning of the Lake Effect. Most people envision a calm, peaceful lake most of the year. We experience its winter harshness living lakeside.

An increase in shootings going on as 2022 comes to a close. I am reminded of my trauma twenty years ago with the Beltway Shootings in and around Silver Spring, Maryland, in October 2002.