Personal Essays | Freesia Lane

New Year’s Resolutions

Another year, another resolution to break. The question is do you get through 24 hours, or not so much?

I am fifty-eight years old. I have been making resolutions since I was in college—or maybe even since high school; I can’t really remember. The truth is, I have never successfully kept a resolution in the forty-odd years I have been making them. Each year, however, I am confident when I head off to bed on the 31st (I rarely make it ...read more

There Goes the Neighborhood

I have to move. I have come to realize over the past few years that you must surround yourself with people who elevate you, who make you feel good about yourself, your accomplishments, and your potential. This doesn’t mean you should never be challenged by friends, co-workers, and acquaintances who may outshine you; but the distance between you cannot be akin to the miles between the sun and the moon.

But I’ll come to the point: Here is a picture of ...read more

My Mom

My mom died. I haven’t written my blog in a while because she is gone, and I just don’t know how to make things seem normal when they are not. How can I possibly write Freesia Lane as if nothing has changed when everything has changed forever? I recognize that everyone’s mother dies. I think they call it the Cycle of Life, and I used to offer that phrase to others as a consolation. But now it seems superficial and ...read more

My 9/11

I wrote this piece ten years ago, in the weeks following 9/11. Nothing has changed for me.

I have been a committed atheist for forty-eight years, never wavering in my firm belief that God makes a wonderful crutch, a way to avoid responsibility for our part in life’s suffering. At first, when the towers fell along with everyone in them, my anger and pain sang of a Godless heap where the southern tip of Manhattan meets the river. Over the next ...read more

Why Do I Blog?

Three people in the last week have asked me why I blog, so I thought I’d answer that question here. I am finding as I go through my day-to-day travels that more and more people are asking me about the blog and about blogging in general. I’m not sure why, but I get the feeling that those around me seem to have something to say, and they are trying to decide where to say it.

A few years ago, I read ...read more

Am I organized?

I really want to think of myself as an organized person. I work hard at it. I took the Franklin Covey three-day course in using their planner, which frankly was a very long time to sit and learn how to fill in your calendar. I buy calendars and agendas yearly, and notebooks usually once a month. I buy them and start all over. Then I throw out the paper organizers and notebooks and move to Outlook. Then I move to ...read more

E-mail Pet Peeves

I don’t wish to sound bitter, especially on such a lovely summer day, but I’m getting more and more irritated by e-mail issues and I wanted to address some of these issues here. I’m sure you will now adjust your opinion of me and realize that, far from being the fab woman you thought I was, polite and filled with gratitude for the world at large, I am in truth constantly irritated by breaches of e-mail etiquette that seem to ...read more

Tucson and the Best in Us

On Saturday a mentally ill man killed some truly exceptional individuals, and last night the leader of our country asked us all to be part of an American Family, three hundred million strong, and be our best selves. The blind shrink once asked me, “When are you going to start to behave the way you want to be remembered?” Last night, Obama asked us to do the same thing. He asked us to live up to the expectations of nine-year-old ...read more

Living my life or The West Wing’s. What’s it going to be?

Epiphanies. Oprah calls them “ah ha” moments. I had one yesterday centered around The West Wing.

I have been watching reruns of The West Wing on TV for the last few weeks and loving them. I never watched it when it was on, so watching an episode each night has been a blast. In fact, I cancelled a dinner plan last week to come home and watch it. Zoe (President Bartlett’s daughter) had been kidnapped by Terrorists, and while I figured they ...read more

Focus.

So, I was at a chicken take-out drive-thru place recommended to me by some friends. It’s right near my new apartment in Marina del Rey, and it’s supposed to be great. There were lots of things to choose from on the menu which was like one of those McDonald’s drive-thru menus, not that I go to McDonald’s mind you. I was speaking to the guy behind the curtain through a speaker box explaining to him that we needed two orders ...read more

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