JPPENS

...bah boom, bah boom, bah boom... To say my summer of 2024 was different from any other in my years of summers would be an understatement.  Life changing in fact expresses my summer accurately.   Getting a cardiologist to join my health team consisting of a primary care doc, a dermatologist, an eye doctor, a dentist, an orthopedic doc and after spending #21 sessions in Cardiac Rehab with dozens of other fortunate souls to still be seen and not merely viewed, I fully realized just how fortunate I was to be alive!  I have, as most of you know, spent most of my life in gyms. I feel comfortable, at home and know what to do so my introduction to Cardiac Rehab was not that unusual for me. What was unusual was that the folks in that specialized gym had gray and snow covered heads with faces telegraphing their roads of experience. Translucent hands mapping deep blue streams as thin as my own gripped the handles of treadmills, recumbent bikes, hand weights and walkers. Deep ...

  ...moment, turn, breath, swallow, swing, step, bend, fall and it becomes a life changing EVENT . It is literally that simple and fast and can happen anywhere. ...it gets your attention ...age matters not ...shelf life becomes reality ...might be fortunate to get another chance Sunny warm day, swinging a club on the 4th hole and my heart EVENT  happened. Positive self talk of "I'm not going to die here" over and over and over got me to where I needed to be. I love golf, but it was not where I wanted to be exciting the planet, at least not yet! Thankful for another chance.

 ...a volatile and difficult issue to discuss and to elucidate. Why is this issue so emotional and so polarizing? People fear what they don't understand so a world of phobias exist...discrimination at every level and of every kind. People that are different than those who view them... religious indoctrination... A lack of appropriate education pertaining to understanding labels like  Bisexual/ Gay/ Lesbian/ Transgender/ Queer/Pansexual/ Non-binary and Transvestite to name a few.  It is  important to know that not all transgendered people are gay. Gay is not synonymous with all of these labels, being different is. These topics cannot be discussed without mentioning the word " SEX " and once that word is read or spoken most people's minds immediately go somewhere else.  Put " sex " and "sports" in the same dialogue and it's volcanic!  Highly combustible words elicit strong emotional convictions. This is why it is so polarizing.  Let me first say ...

 In the 60's when I was playing women's basketball it was being played 6 on 6 and only 2 team members from each team could run full court. We wore one piece gym suits with hand sewn numbers on the back and front. Some of the courts we played on were so short in length that we had to put one foot up on the wall when making an end court out of bounds play.  Games were played at 3:30 in the afternoon so would-be spectators were mostly working. Many women playing today have no idea of how it "all began".  In 1971 the women's game went to 5 on 5 with running full court open to all! It brought new excitement to the game. I was no longer playing but I was now coaching in the early 70's.  We practiced after the guys practiced; had 6 basketballs to their 12; one uniform when they had home and away uniforms and the pay was a third of the male's hoops coach salary. I hope you get the picture.                         ...

  Since my book LOUD SECRETS A MEMOIR has been released I have had many folks contact me. Some generously shared their personal stories of triumph and life on the struggle bus. Some have asked me varying questions about wine and all the hoopla that goes with choosing one over another down to nitrites and what temperature should it be served at or how do I store an open bottle. Some have asked me about writing and how I got to where I now am. I have had fun with creating and building my blog and my viewer numbers continue to climb. I have never done any of my writing to purposely make money and refuse to do so with my blog so I will not allow any ads to enter my space. I write because I enjoy putting in print what I feel and see. To pass my mental images onto others in essay form, story form or through a simple sketch is what it is about for me. My blog allows me to just enjoy writing! I have been asked by many if I am writing another book. I have a few partial manuscripts on my bo...

 PRIDE MONTH is the time for me to answer so many folks who have asked, why is it so important for gay people to come out.  The first time I was asked that I found myself almost lost for words. In that brief moment I felt anger, confusion, hurt and wonder at why someone would have to even ask that! As the LGBT+ community once again comes under hateful attacks in this country, I am thrown back into the  60's and 70's when I was just a young girl trying to find my place in a society that kept telling me I was sick, disgusting and going to hell.  We all need to not just talk about ending the hate and the lies but we need to fight to turn this ugly tide. I will speak for myself and others who cannot...  We will not go away. We will not be going back into closets to live our lives. We will be vocal. We will raise awareness. We will call on those who know and love us to come out and support us. We will fight for equality and our right to be who we are without shame or...

Adult lives are filled with work, kids and their lives, adult plans, family, grocery shopping, cooking, worries, gatherings, date nights, bedtimes, appointments, alarm clocks and the list goes on... It seemed there was always a struggle to find the time... until the loss of people we treasured stopped our regular hurried routines; took our breath away, at least until we could find that place to store our grief and then attempt to move back into our hectic lives.  That loss, that memory of that person who filled our hearts has always, I believe, left a shadow over our hearts.  Heart shadows have no limits, no magic number, there is always room for more it seems still leaving room for beats.  The other day I was pumping gas and the fueling station had music playing outside over the bays of vehicles; a familiar song came on that stopped my hand squeeze on the hose nozzle. The immediate visual memory of that dear person who had passed was as palpable as if I had just learned ...