Stranger with her kitty I am in a twilight zone of random discoveries that change my life in small ways. My last Food for Thought Messages from a Diary  was one episode. This is another.  My latest found object was a photograph discarded in the street which I discovered on my morning walk through Seminole Heights. The portrait is one of a shy-appearing woman, holding a cat. She might be in her thirties. She appears to have been talking when the camera recorded the moment.

Kathy Joanne's Diary This Food for Thought was inspired by a diary discovered in a thrift store in Tampa. The journal was begun on September 6, 1987, in San Diego, California and continues for a brief eleven pages across seven years. The writer, Kathy Joanne, bemoaned previous journals she had begun, but discarded. She began this journal when her mother advised her to do so during a difficult period of her life. I am glad she wrote. I am happier still that I discovered her.

My first home in Tampa, Hyde Park, 1990, Built 1921 My family of dearest friends and fellow writers all believe that our history is important to our children and grandchildren’s lives, but not to them, yet. My adult children are repeating my life.  Just as they are now, I was also a busy young parent. Little time or interest was left for researching family history. I figured there would always be time to do so, when I had the time. History was the past. I was busy navigating

Our ship launched at the 1992 Gasparilla Parade The following story is one I wrote of my first Gasparilla party at my new home in Hyde Park.  My whole world was fresh, my home, my sweetheart, my friends. At the time I wrote this little story I knew I had to write, but I had no idea that I was a writer. That seemed too pretentious a title for me to adopt. Writers were real people, who published books, who wrote constantly, who had a voice.  I had none of that, then. I never w

One of my overloaded hutches, Blue Willow, Stangl, Mary Engelbreit and antique teapots I love dishes. My overflowing cupboards and hutches bear witness to my obsession. They groan under the weight of their comrades. I imagine they are saying, “ Can she even think of piling another dish in here?” It is a fruitless debate. There is always room for one more dish, bowl, cup or saucer. Where did my dish fixation come from? Immediately a vision comes to mind.  My mother’s beauti

Periwinkle bouquet “Everyone I know has been in a terrible mood for weeks,” my California friend Robin remarked in a phone conversation recently. I had been complaining about my own black mood. “That sums up what all my Florida friends are saying lately. Maybe it's because it’s been so damn hot, you know, the dog days of summer. Makes everyone cranky.” My answer didn’t solve my crankiness, which further annoyed me.  I thought long and hard over our conversation. A friend in

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark...

I was recently purging my closet of memories in the guise of rarely-worn youthful ensembles. These pretty outfits have outlived my youth,...

Since my return to Tampa after six weeks in Oregon I had been stymied in writing a new Food for Thought. I have been caught between two...

May 6, 1937 Women's Anti Fascism March, from Ybor City to downtown Tampa I have not participated in a protest march since I joined the...

Ellis Island and our Statue of Liberty I have a friend who is our neighborhood advocate. He is our advisor on contractors, painters,...

Photo courtesy of Dr. James Fernandez & Luis Argeo, Invisible Immigrants: Spaniards in the US Today’s Food for Thought is...

2024 flew by far too quickly.  Wasn’t it just a few months ago I was shopping for last year’s Christmas gifts? The old adage is always...

This month's post, https://www.jaynelisbeth.com/post/the-art-of-gift-wrapping explores what the ways you wrap gifts says about you!

I have spent the entire day wrapping gifts. I have wrapped my Christmas Cranberry Relish and special hand crafted or “store bought” gifts...

I decided to do something different in this Food for Thought. The writers group I've mentioned previously has contributed another round...

I am sharing that wonderful, witty statement, “ What Fresh Hell is This?” It is one of my favorite quotes from the most respected and...

Cyndi Lauper performing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun..." I went "shopping in my closet," as my dear friend, Fran, used to say. I needed an...

To write or not to write has been a question that comes to me only when I am not writing. Usually, I am in the active phase of self-doubt...

Of late, I have been obsessed with the value and the difficulties of positive communication. Thoughts go through my mind with no...