A colleague recently shared an observation with my business partner and me, a comment echoed by other coworkers as well: “It looks like Renee and Terry have hit the reset button.” We both agree those words are a compliment of the highest order as they perfectly capture our intentions while also providing evidence that our…
Read MoreAll articles filed in Terry Shamblin
Hi, I’m Terry, an experienced educator passionate about writing, as well as my family and friends, nature and travel, health and wellness, mindfulness and meditation, and humor of all kinds.
Tracking Progress
Congratulations were in order. May 27, 2021, marked my 365th consecutive day of meditating. A whole year! I was proud of myself for finally “possessing” the ever elusive consistent practice I’d spent years chasing, and I could feel its many benefits manifesting in my everyday life. I’d become calmer, more centered and detached, although not…
Read MoreTestaments
In this strange town the funeral home lurks across from the county hospital the porch on the pink house sags while the rescued mansion next door remains a monument its newly-built wall a medieval illusion of concrete and stone steep streets and their names an awkward accent in my mouth unheard by twin babies swinging…
Read MoreOur Lists of 100 Things
On August 20, 2020, my friend, Renee, and I visited the beautiful Turning Point Park in Rochester, New York, walked their 3572 ft.-long footbridge, and started our Lists of 100 Things. The List of 100 Things isn’t a bucket list or a wish list, but it also kind of is. It’s more of a list…
Read MoreA Gratitudes
I’m grateful for all the airplanes that carried us safely on planned vacations that somehow turned into unexpected destinations. I’m grateful for attitude, our only choice sometimes, and for being able to choose well more often lately. I’m grateful for appreciation, amazed and astonished by daily miraculous acts of which I am in awe. I’m…
Read MoreEasing Into Meditation
The benefits of meditation are substantial and well-known, which is why many of us are striving to integrate the practice into our daily lives. My good friend and now business partner, Renee, and I set out on our learning-to-meditate-journey together. That shared resolution, made while on vacation, is one we’ve kept over the years because…
Read MorePerfect Posture
Stack the books. Penmanship. Recipes. Atlases. Etiquette. Square your shoulders. Pull them back. Put your chin up. Straighten the spine. That stomach: suck it in. That chest: push it out. Smile. Hold still. Let me put the books on your head. Walk. Turn around. Face me. Smile. Walk. Sit in the chair. Cross your legs…
Read MoreUmbrella Shopping
For their second birthdays, I buy each of my grandbabies their own special umbrella. The first, a Hungry Little Caterpillar see-though dome for my avid reader I found in the Curious George Bookstore in Harvard Square while away for work with friends. Its curved green handle had already outgrown my suitcase and the overhead bin,…
Read MoreThe Meme for Our Lives
In 2007, my husband and I decided to go to the city to see a movie. This is not something we do often, but we really wanted to see Balls of Fury, mainly for pointers on how to become ping pong ninjas. The reason we needed that important knowledge was because we’d just bought ourselves…
Read MoreFlight
I left the house for a gallon of milk and I wondered what if I never went back. How long would you drink black coffee and eat dry cereal before you realized I was gone? Driving north through Canada, flying with the geese and honking my horn, buying a down coat for myself and a…
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Terry Shamblin Writes 