My life sometimes has its ups and downs.  Like everyone, challenges and opportunities occur on a regular basis.  Every day, every minute of every day I have choices that arise in conjunction with my actions.  Most days, most of my choices are good; they are what I call life enhancing, or productive (as opposed to counterproductive).

Sometimes I find myself making counterproductive choices; usually a quick mind and a quick tongue that naturally support the good I see around me will develop a caustic edge.  It will look like humour or good advice but will somehow leave those around me feeling mildly demeaned. 

Bigger is not always better!  Contrary to popular opinion good things do not improve with size.  Case in point: we just acquired a new microwave, medium-small in size.  It works very well, doing just what it was supposed to do.  It is bigger than our old one, why it could probably hold six coffee cups at once for reheating.  I only ever reheat one cup of tea or coffee at a time.  Sometimes I reheat a plate of leftovers; the size of the plate remains the same even with a larger oven.  And now, worst of all, my kitchen counter is smaller.

For Thanksgiving, when every inch of counter space is a cherished commodity, a bigger microwave oven proved to be more of a liability than an asset.

A few years ago I would not have been considered a writer; many things but not a writer.  In fact as a child in school I had become recognized as someone who never completed written assignments.  I tried but somehow the thoughts in my head fell to the pages in garbled disarray and sheets of paper with my unsuccessfully written sentences lay crumpled all around me.   This incapacity to arrange my thoughts first became apparent to me when I was about seven years old, and to the day of my un-graduation I never did complete any written work.