Jumping out of our Comfort zone!

                            UNCLE FRANCIS AND ME!   W hen I think of the Mafia, I think of Uncle Frank, when I think of Clark Gable, I think of Uncle Frank, when I think of cigars and heavy gold rings on one's little finger, I think of  Uncle Frank. When I smell cloying gladiolas and Old Spice , I smell Uncle Frank. To me, when I think about him, his presence was extraordinary and nonpareil among the members of my dad’s family. Uncle Frank, born Francis Xavier Grattano, was no luke-warm Catholic. He took his religion quite seriously (well, at least his mother did). The fact that he was a member of our family was stranger than fiction. Yet after WW2, intermarriage and assimilation was rampant. America was victorious and it was a time of great celebration.   My dear Aunt Jeanne, my dad's sister, who was the capital, "C" in the word Chic, and preached  think in the pink and be po...

JUMPING OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE Scene 1 :  No internet connection on my PC and iPhone. Major withdrawal symptoms, anxiety and foreboding dread. Alone in house as my go to computer person of decades ( my dear husband), has passed on a year ago. Tempted to do the forbidden and hold a seance seeking his advice from Above ! My computer advisors are currently unavailable and besides should they come and help, they come with a price tag understandably as loving your neighbor as yourself has its limits. After all there really are no free lunches in life . I have been stuck over the last 24 hours in a quagmire of fear and discomfort.  I either extrapolate (I am never going to have internet connection again), I feel as though I am an exception (no one else has these internet glitches it happens only to me ), exaggerate (this situation is awful, I am going to faint, have a meltdown ) etc. The above scenarios are surely erroneous beliefs based on magical thinking yet l quick...