Lorna@Large

“Who me? I should be living in the red? Stupes! What is the matter with this man? I’m struggling so hard to get out of debt and he come wid this foolishness!”

 Those were my thoughts recently when I heard a priest make that declaration. I was attending the memorial service for a good friend and reflecting on his life when the priest interrupted my thoughts with his bold assertion: You, yes you should be living in the red!

Well, Dog bite me! who sent this man?

I had to admit though, he caught the attention of every person in that room and as we listened to him we began to realize that living in the red might actually be a good thing.  As a matter of fact, a desired thing.

 As he went on to describe the red lifestyle, I reached over my shoulder and patted myself on the back because all my life, I have lived some version of this lifestyle. So I want to inspire you with my RED lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I had a conversation that went something like this:

 Me (animatedly): Hi Friend X, I haven’t seen you in a while, whatever become of you?

 Friend X (dejectedly): Girl, things are not good at all. As a matter of fact, I think I’m having a nervous breakdown!

 Alrighty then!  I looked hard at the woman and she was very serious.

 The last I heard, a nervous breakdown is something serious that required some sort of professional intervention to assist with the diagnosis and not something that you just decide to “have”. Naturally, this woman got me thinking and I ask myself:  

Supposing, just supposing, I decided to have a nervous breakdown, when is the best time for me to have a nervous breakdown?  Read the rest of this entry »

All my life I heard my mother and my grandmother declare “common sense ain’t common!”

 This statement always made me go very quiet and it still does even now because I always thought that if it were true, common sense would dictate that you change the name of this apparently uncommon thing to an equally uncommon name like gemeinschaft or muscaevolitantes.

You see what I mean! My spell check immediately underlined those two words in red which is not the common sense thing to do because they do exist and are spelt correctly.

 But that aside, the question is “how common is Common Sense?” Apparently, not very. And even so, what is common sense anyhow?

 I read somewhere that a good technical definition of common sense is “sound judgment not based on specialized knowledge.” I like this because it means just once, here was something you don’t need to have a Ph.D. to convince somebody that you have it. It is a trait that you develop by a little thought and lots of practice. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, a friend whom I talk to quite a bit, especially to bounce ideas and thoughts off each other, described in detail how I should scale back my “behaviour” so that people around me could feel comfortable dealing with me.

The “behaviour” which I am supposed to scale back is my “cut to the chase” drama-free approach to dealing with the issues that present themselves in my space. According to her, this makes me appear “plastic” and without emotion. She hastened to add that she was quite comfortable dealing with me but she felt sorry for those others who were not.

As I reflected on her ridiculous request, the quotation by Marianne Williamson from: A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, so often incorrectly accredited to Nelson Mandela, came to my mind. I share this quotation below. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I watched a few episodes of Dr Phil, I was impressed. Can you believe it? There’s someone out there who actually thinks like me: logical, practical and in your face. So today, in honour of Dr Phil, I write this post to answer a few of the many issues and items that people seek my advice on. So here goes: Read the rest of this entry »

Politicians abuse it. Barrack Obama has it. Sarah Palin wants it but for me, it’s elusive.

Last week Thursday, I decided I wanted to watch a movie and so, swaying my hips appreciatively, I approached my son’s DVD player courageously. You must understand that I have the ability to make the most robust of electrical equipment disintegrate just by coming within two feet of its location.

Half day later, I was still trying to turn on the darn thing. My son walked through the door, Read the rest of this entry »

I am suspended on the precipice of indecision, juxtaposed between the quality of the past and the convenience of the present. I embrace the decency of the skirt length befitting my age, while I long for the mini skirt of my youth! What am I talking about? I’m talking about living between two generations. Read the rest of this entry »

My mother never questions him. My grandmother exhibits the same blind faith. My great-aunt Clara swears that she has to have him at her bedside when she is dying. My children have denounced him. Me, I have a similar adversarial relationship as those I have with people whose authority I question.

Who is this person? Why do we worship him so blindly? Is he God? Read the rest of this entry »

I was listening to the radio recently when the Dee Jay announced a blast from the past and started to play Credence Clearwater Revival’s “I’m not scared of dying.” Well I started singing (yes singing!) at the top of my voice but when I got to the line “but if it’s peace you find in dying…” I stopped dead in my tracks. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t you just loooove fine dining? I do! And in my country there’s every opportunity to indulge my passion. I’m sure by now you realize that there is more to fine dining than the food, so let’s start at the beginning. Read the rest of this entry »