About this column:
A biweekly commentary on health and wellness.
It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t pleased or excited, or that it didn’t matter much when the Mid-Peninsula Media Center honored me with a 2011 Local Hero Award on April 17. It is a humbling experience to be publicly recognized for living my life with intention. It means a great deal to me to be included with five amazing people who stepped up in their communities to make a difference—people who have opened up their hearts for the betterment of others: Ellen Fletcher, Kate Young, Dan Wu, Eugene Hyman and Robert Freeman.What do these local heroes have in common? They all said “yes” to …
We’ve all heard the expression, “A pillar of the community.” This column is dedicated to my dear friend, the late Roberta Grant Ewald. She was an artist who painted myriad colors onto the local fabric of San Bruno and Pacifica for more than 50 years. Our paths first intersected shortly after my family moved here in 1980. My son Peter was preparing a school report on Mexico, so we dropped into a charming travel agency on Kains Avenue. Ewald Travel, which has since moved to San Mateo Avenue, provided many a color brochure for class projects, even though we never booked a tropical cruise or …
Sometimes the urge to run away is so monumental, we actually do it. After reading the book Eat Pray Love, I saw the movie. It is a stunningly visual account of author Elizabeth Gilbert’s yearlong journey of self-discovery through Italy, India and Bali. It got me thinking how experiencing loss and pain can prompt us to take a turn down the road we might never have considered. It would be especially understandable after what residents of San Bruno have been through. It brought back memories of my own great escape. It was in the spring of 1991. My younger brother Paul Rosman had died six months …
We can't control change. The only thing we can control is how we adapt to change. Take the weather, for instance. It's wintertime whether we're ready for it or not. Lately San Bruno has been pelted with a cold and dismal rain. So far, the end days of 2010 have given us a challenging season. We have to accept it. Some people are more able to adapt to change, some not. It happens anyway. The other day I was sitting by a big picture window in my bedroom. A flurry of raindrops hit the glass and distorted my view of a neighbor's small nondescript tree. Hunched over a cup of hot tea and wrapped …
Editor's Note: This is the last and third part of Bardi Rosman Koodrin's column, "Messenger in the Night." There can be a time when your logical mind, with all the pressing thoughts and images in your head, recedes, and pure instinct sets in. When you find yourself being in the absolute moment. No fretting about the past. Or worrying over the future. Imagine living in the present. Right here. Right now. I had one of those crystal clear moments in a local San Bruno park one night while standing stock still. While a wild gray fox sniffed my bare knee. It was possible at that moment …
Editor's Note: This is part two of Bardi Rosman Koodrin's column, "Messenger in the Night." It's hard to imagine having an up-close and personal wildlife experience in one of our local parks when it is surrounded by houses and schools with cars cruising by, but there she was. A female gray fox. It turns out our most significant teachers aren't always who and what we think they should be. It happened one balmy autumn night in 1992. My husband Boris and I were taking an after-dinner stroll. He was intent on teaching me how to see in "wide angle vision," which basically means softening …
Creeping along the path in such an exaggerated and slow forward movement, the muscles in my calves burned. Yet, I would not have broken my stance for anything, for it was such a thrilling encounter with the natural world of the unknown. When the bearer of crucial news happens to be a wild four-footed animal—well—sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. I'll explain what I mean in a bit. I have been a storyteller since the age of 5. It all started with a dream that felt more like a vision. It was so real I swore to my parents that a lady visited me and foretold a life of family death and …
It's easier to be aware of something once you recognize the need to be vigilant. Take health for instance. October was Breast Cancer Awareness month. This time of year always reminds me of my eldest sister, Janet Rosman Kurz. Jan put on a fantastic Halloween party in 1975 that is still a family legend. Five weeks later, she succumbed to breast cancer. She was 32 years old. Jan already was on my mind last week when we learned that a dear friend has breast cancer. Brian recently had a mastectomy and underwent his first round of chemotherapy. Men get breast cancer too, more often than one…
We don't get through life without accumulating a few scars along the way. They act as visual reminders. If we take the time to read our body's scars like a road map, we can see the route taken by following all of our physical landmarks. My biggest detour is a horseshoe-shaped scar with 52 stitches stretching across my skull. After brain surgery at age 25, I had to look daily at a freshly carved, bright red set of tracks laid along my shaved scalp. San Bruno has a fresh, deeply carved scar we all must live with right now. The fire burned its own set of bright red tracks through the …
I've lived in San Bruno for 30 years and, during these past few weeks, I have never been prouder of my city. I know you are, too. It truly is a city with a heart. We recognize the need to rebuild our lives and homes so we've all rolled up our sleeves with the collective "let's do it" attitude that is so characteristic of the straightforward, hard-working people who live here. There's no question our close-knit community experienced a deep loss over the fire that raged through our land. Watching the devastation live on CNN was surreal, as if an actual hole was being burned into our hearts…
