In the weeks from Thanksgiving to the eve of New Year’s Eve, circumstances have allowed me to watch more movies than usual. Here’s my take on two films about loneliness, fulfillment, self-acceptance and more. See what you think!

Lucky to live in California, where the secretary of state’s office called to tell me that my mail-in ballot was on the way, I pondered what I could do to help besides voting. What first came to mind was to share the message I received from Senator Bernie Sanders – a great man who never stops working for you and me.

A Breviary for the Lost is a memoir in poems about a time of personal, spiritual, and psychological upheaval, within circumstances of political and moral challenge. I met Loren when we were both college students and he was a fledgling member of the Christian Brothers, a Catholic religious teaching order. The time we shared most directly was the late 1960s and early 1970s although our friendship endures to this day.

I think anyone—married, partnered or single—can benefit from the exercises I did to “get ready to get ready” to write an online dating profile.

Like all of us, I lived through the fear of catching a deadly virus, the fallout from an economic shutdown, months of social isolation, tension overs masks and vaccinations, and political upheaval I could not have imagined. In January, I decided it was now-or-never. I called the relationship coach I’d met the year before and made an appointment.