My Bucket List I’ve been fortunate in the last fifteen years or so. My wife, Donna, and I have enough money right now, so when money is needed for roof repairs and other things, we finally have enough. Even our house is paid off. In addition, we have great health insurance, otherwise we would have gone broke from all my hospital bills. So, we’re in really good shape now that my health looks like it will be good now. Because of this I’ve tried to become more grateful for everything. The...
4 months ago • 3 min read
I’d like to announce that my entire collection of eBooks is available for FREE as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/John_FrederickZurn; https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1118777 My Father My relationship with my father is complicated. He was fiercely competitive and it was always “his way or the highway.” He also got angry a lot, but raising seven children with all its challenges must have been difficult for him. But as I look back with...
5 months ago • 4 min read
Some Memories of Growing Up Originally, I thought I’d write about humor, but when I started by copying Webster’s dictionary definition of humor, I realized I was writing a high school essay. Finally, I gave up on the idea and decided to write a few anecdotes from my childhood. Some are funny, but others are more serious. So, the ideas are based on my personal experiences. When I was in high school, I ran cross country for three years. Our coach was always creating new trails for us to run,...
5 months ago • 3 min read
The Girl in the Lavender Glasses In my latest book, The Jagged Edge Anthology, I’ve included a three-act play called The Girl in the Lavender Glasses. To be honest, my ideas for the play have no outside source and it came from my own creative imagination. It took a long time to write because it is difficult to create authentic dialogue that is driven by an interesting plot. The play is meant for teenagers and adults and has no sex and little violence associated with it. Here is a basic...
6 months ago • 3 min read
The Unsteady Mind In my life, there has been nothing so challenging as managing my thoughts, feelings and moods. My mind is constantly subjected to all kinds of attitudes and thought patterns that I have to work on. I, like most people I suppose, must sometimes monitor thoughts and feelings in order to do well in the world. I read the following story several times to focus on the mind’s energy: ---There once was a king who was swamped with work that he was having a great deal of trouble. So,...
6 months ago • 3 min read
Managing Depression Like millions of others, I struggle with depression at times. Because of this, I’ve learned all I could about it, and although depression has a huge amount of information associated with it, I thought I’d share some of my experience and knowledge. Below are some causes of depression, but there are probably as many reasons as there are people: *Depression can be caused by repressed anger. When thoughts and feelings cannot be expressed, they get buried in the mind and can...
6 months ago • 3 min read
The Mystery of Love After writing over fifty newsletters, I have found it difficult to come up with new ideas every week. Every time I think about some topic like prayer, gratitude or music, I review my previous newsletters and realize that I’ve already written about them. So, I decided to look through my book of original sayings called Passing Through the Dream. I came up with one chapter called “The Mystery of Love,” and I thought I would write about love and share the sayings. The concept...
6 months ago • 2 min read
The Doctor Patient Conundrum Over the last ten years, I’ve seen my fair share of doctors. The following story is from my book, Comedy in Everyday Life. The doctor patient conundrum illustrates some of the events and rituals that I’ve been exposed to that really are probably standard for most people. I’ve added a little humor to make the story more enjoyable. The story: As I learn to accept the limitations that come with age, doctor appointments have become an integral part of my life....
7 months ago • 4 min read
Insomnia Based on my research*, there are least two kinds of insomnia. Short term insomnia which is caused by stress or disturbing events, and chronic insomnia which lasts more than three months and is related to medical conditions. I’ve listed below some of the main symptoms, causes and prevention of insomnia and includes a few of my own experiences as well. It’s important to note that everyone is different, so not everything is applicable to specific individuals. As a senior, my experiences...
7 months ago • 2 min read