Joyce Reid

As I sat down in my chair on the patio and watched the ingredients in the bowl on my breakfast tray change from white to yellow, memories started flooding back. I had not eaten a bowl of grits with an egg for years.  That is not until this morning.  In fact, even the thought of … Read more

The Town That Became Home: A Love Story with Route 66 and Flagstaff It was early March 1961. After spending the first five months of our married life in Washington DC, Ron had finished his military tour of duty and we were on our way home to California. For me it meant a new life … Read more

Celebrating 84 Years of Living and Learning It’s Taken Me 84 Years to Learn All This — And I Still Have a Ways to Go Eighty-four years ago on a Sunday morning in mid-September, my mother gave birth to me at the Pensacola Maternity Hospital in Florida. A lot has happened along the way. I’ve … Read more

There are times when something makes you think of your own mortality.  One of these times was  when I read the other day that Steve Jobs died at age 56 but he lived life to the fullest.  This isn’t the first time that I’ve been reminded that something makes you stop and think about your … Read more

Share Those Memories Before They Are Gone They will disappear with you! My mother made my dresses from chicken feed sacks. Not because she was creative — though she was — but because there was nothing else.  Money was tight and the feed companies printed their sacks with cheerful patterns specifically for that purpose. When … Read more

Today marks the beginning of the third year. It was two years ago that I sat in the trauma ICU at my local hospital watching my husband’s blood pressure on the monitor beside his bed. It read 69—and it was slowly dropping. That was the moment I realized the ER doctor’s words had led me … Read more

22 Ways to Say “I Love You” Without Words I wrote this post years ago when Ron and I were celebrating our 57th wedding anniversary. He’s gone now. And sitting with these words today, I find they mean something different than they did when I first wrote them. They feel less like tips and more … Read more

You never know when you’ll suddenly happen upon an unexpected moment of inspiration. I only live a short drive from the Grand Canyon and have visited it many times. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the first time I ever saw it back in 1960, I was a little disappointed. Sure, it was … Read more

Romance on a Budget: The Gifts That Cost Nothing and Mean Everything Valentine’s Day has always struck me as a little backwards. We spend so much energy searching for the perfect expensive gesture when the most romantic moments of my life cost absolutely nothing. Holding hands on a walk. Laughing about something only we understood. … Read more

I was the shy kid through high school. In a graduation class of over 500 students, I was just one of the crowd.  I met girls that I had graduated with but had never seen before when I went to a small college. Does this sound like you? Yeh, I know.  You are connected with … Read more

Someday Never Came—And That’s a Good Thing I’ve been asked, “How can you stay passionate about life for so long without getting bored or burnt out?” The answer is simple: I’ve made it a journey filled with fun, meaningful challenges, and plenty of growth along the way. One of the biggest traps I see people … Read more