Random Thoughts of Living

 I was the only one of my parents 5 daughters that had a broken bone.  It was the summer of my 7 th birthday and like most kids of my generation, it was a daily ritual to play outside most of the time.  Hours were spent with my friend from across the street.  We roamed the neighborhood with certain fearlessness and viewed the series of unfenced yards as our playground (times were different then!).  At that age, my passion was swing sets.   There was never a swing that I didn’t want to jump on and pump my way to the blue sky.   Was there any easier way to feel free?   I craved that moment at the very top of the trajectory when there is that barely perceptible moment where it feels like everything stops.      Getting to that pause was what I strived for.   After that, I could rhythmically swing without boredom until the street lights came on.   This particular afternoon, my friend and I were elated to see that our neigh...

 I like to recall that I am of the first generation of secondary school girls who were encouraged to play sports, thanks to TitleIX which passed in 1972.   I remember noticing there were no girls sports in school to all the sudden having the opportunity to try out for volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, and track.  I did three of the four.  Oddly, despite of my relative height, I never learned to play basketball but that is a different story.  I was proficient at volleyball and track.  With track, I learned the life lesson that I didn't particularly like to run but having some amount of speed, I was often used as part of a relay team.  I was most enthused about hurdles because it reminded me of the childhood pastime of  jumping across the nearby creek where we would challenge each other to leap between successively wider banks. If I recall correctly, I placed in one of the rounds of city finals.    If you watch races, you will seldo...