Malinda's Table

When I was young, I lived on the 6100 block of Ellsworth Street in West Philadelphia, a street of semi-detached houses on both sides of the block. The north side of the 6000 block had houses also, but the south side had only one home: a stately mansion with an iron gate surrounding the massive property. A friend of mine lived across from the mansio...

Have you ever notice how often people make life more difficult for themselves by complicating uncomplicated things?  How often you embellish a problem or situation, making it worse than it really is?   How often do you "read" things into an interaction?  Here is one of my favorite antidotes.  It's from Buddhist writer Silvia Boorstein's Don't Just Do Something: Sit There.  Silvia once called a monastery to arrange a retreat. The person who answered the phone said, 'You need to talk to Robert."  Sylvia left a message for Robert.  The next day Robert returned Sylvia's call but Sylvia wasn't home. A day later, Sylvia called Robert again.  He wasn't there. She explained the back and forth calls with Robert to the person who answered the phone that third day. She added, "Maybe this is a sign that I"m not supposed to do my retreat," complicating the situation.  The response was, "I think it's a sign that Robert isn't here."  

A relationship made in the stars.  This couple, Carol Kiparsky and Ian Irwin, both in their 70's, decided to go for a hike in the dense California woods without their cell phones or cold-weather clothing.  They were lost for two weeks. A cadaver dog found before they turned into cadavers themselves.