I'm 80
Shortly after my 80th birthday last February, I started “field testing” the statement “I’m 80”. I did so out of a curiosity catalyzed by...
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OWLcourage
a blog invested in hope and creative possibility
Phyllis Kritek
- Sep 8
- 6 min
Gooseberries
A gooseberry is defined as “a round edible yellowish-green or reddish berry with a thin translucent hairy skin.” Just reading this...
Phyllis Kritek
- Aug 28
- 5 min
CR Packaging
“Child-resistant packaging or CR packaging is special packaging used to reduce the risk of children ingesting hazardous materials. This...
Phyllis Kritek
- Aug 19
- 5 min
Impermanence
The waves were large and loud today as I approached the beach where I walk most mornings. To actually get to the shoreline, I leave a...
Phyllis Kritek
- Aug 13
- 5 min
Dust the Pheasant
The indicator of a good family reunion is the satisfaction and positive feelings the participants experience as they head back to their...
Phyllis Kritek
- Aug 4
- 4 min
Family Reunion
In a few hours I will board a plane to fly due East to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There I will join a gathering of my living siblings and...
Phyllis Kritek
- Jul 30
- 5 min
Emergence
I continue to chronicle the curious, even fascinating lessons learned in my move from Ohio to the Pacific Ocean. As I have noted before,...
Phyllis Kritek
- Jul 22
- 4 min
Right Answers
It’s hard to find a group experience where some human in the situation doesn’t declare that they have the right answer, a field of...
Phyllis Kritek
- Jul 14
- 6 min
Smart
I remember the day I decided to “Stay Smart”. It was a firm decision but also a dreaded and frightful one. I think I was either in 7th...
Phyllis Kritek
- Jul 8
- 5 min
Help
Nothing like moving highlights the need for the help of others. And I was blessed with an abundant portion. Both family (which included...
Phyllis Kritek
- Jul 1
- 5 min
Moved
I posted a blog on March 26, 2023 titled “Moving” where I shared some reflections on my decision to move from Johnstown, Ohio to the...
Phyllis Kritek
- May 27
- 1 min
Birdsong
Time for poetry to add to the conversation... OWLcourage Community Members are invited to join in the discussion on this blog using the...
Phyllis Kritek
- May 9
- 6 min
Autonomy
The challenges of the move I am in the middle of and the lessons learned are such a flood of energy fields emergent and encountered that...
Phyllis Kritek
- Apr 16
- 6 min
dystopian distress
One of my favorite poets is e. e. cummings. I spent a few years absorbing everything I could find of his work, and credit him with...
Phyllis Kritek
- Apr 2
- 4 min
Intentionality
Though I had published a good deal during my academic career, until I was 50, I hadn’t written a book, and more specifically, a book in...
Phyllis Kritek
- Mar 26
- 5 min
Moving
During the last few weeks, I have been reflecting on a range of topics I wanted to write about for this blog. Slowly, I realized that my...
Phyllis Kritek
- Mar 19
- 4 min
Advantage
The concept of “advantage” is one of the trickiest of ideas, and can, I believe, often reveal to us our intellectual laziness. The...
Phyllis Kritek
- Mar 12
- 5 min
Decline/Adapt
The least troublesome definition of “decline” I could locate reads as follows: “become smaller, fewer, or less; decrease (usually of...
Phyllis Kritek
- Feb 28
- 4 min
Role Re-Visioning
We humans organize our individual and communal biographies using an “invented” device called “roles”. In the US, all cultures and...
Phyllis Kritek
- Feb 20
- 4 min
Race : White
My decision to spend my late adolescent and early adult years in a convent had a long list of consequences, some more troublesome than...
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