Did you see the eMeetinghouse blog post earlier this week with my co-worker Courtney’s amazing sourdough starter?  She nurtured a bag of flour and water to create “Helen” and then “Helen’s sister” – an abundance of starter and baked goods.  It reminds me of the story of Strega Nona’s pasta pot.  This award-winning children’s book is set in Southern Italy.   If you have never read the folktale, it’s worth checking out.  Spoiler alert – there is an extreme overabundance of pasta.

In turn, thoughts of pasta lead me to think of wonderful Italy.  Last year, my partner …

Last week, my colleague Gail Tomarchio wrote about mindful walking.  My topic is about making a sourdough starter. And it is about all the baked goods that come from the starter.  All this good food is one more reason to take that long, mindful walk.

My sourdough starter was born out of a need for a leaven.  There was none to be found in my grocery store thanks to Covid-19. So when the internet was flooded with bread and sourdough starter recipes I figured, why not?

Sourdough starter requires daily maintenance, including discarding excess starter. I felt guilty was…

Covid-19 has changed so much at a time — and in a world — that already had plenty of change and uncertainty. And yet, change is not always bad.  It can, in fact, lead us to make better choices for our lives with long-term, positive results.   A recent eMeetinghouse blog post by contributor, Etta Hornstein, gave some great ideas of things we can do as we pursue wellbeing.
Introducing a Blog Series
The team at Friends Life Care Partners is taking this advice to heart.  This is the first post in a series we’re bringing to you.  The series highlights wellness, connecti…

I received this pithy text on April 4, 2020 and I had no idea initially who it was from:

Good Lord! Who is this? Finally, a flashback. On January 12, 2020, I was standing in front of a bookstand in the park marveling at its painted turquoise exterior covered with green and blue buttons. That’s when Carol, an energetic 78-year-old woman came along carrying an armful of books and began to restack the stand. She was bubbly and vivacious. We spoke like we had known each other forever and exchanged telephone numbers at the end. When I called Carol later, we talked again…

Five days had gone by since I sent the first email to her. We had met in one of my classes during my training as an integrative health coach. I was worried about her, because she suddenly disappeared, just as class was coming to an end and humanity’s new threat was descending. Then finally I got a response from my 73-year-old friend. She told me she had been struggling with her mental health. I totally understood. Staying mentally fit during COVID-19 is as difficult as staying physically fit.

Mental fitness and physical fitness are symbiotic states: they support one an…