Louisa Rogers

When I was a teenager, I developed an unhealthy habit of repeatedly making promises to my mother that I would go on a diet, then fail to keep my promise. For this reason, I’ve found that one of the best ways to make a change is not to make a promise.
If that sounds strange, it’s hardly the only quirky way I’ve found over the years to make lasting changes, and now that I’m 71, it’s much easier than it once was. Here are 11 more strategies I use, culled from my professional background, my spiri...

When Barry and I met more than 40 years ago, we knew we had many interests in common, among them hiking, backpacking, bicycling, camping, road trips, international travel, and explorations wherever we happened to find ourselves. Back then, for example, every Sunday we’d check out a different scenic spot in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area, where we lived. And on one of our first dates, we visited the airport, gazing up at the posters of exotic places on the walls, a portend of what was t...

We’re off! My husband Barry and I are embarking on a five-day trip in our VW camper van. Every year in August, we leave our home in Eureka, on California’s North Coast, and make our way to Bandon, the town in southern Oregon famous for its sand labyrinth festival, fish market, and golf courses. Here, we’ll meet up with my cousin and her husband, who live in northern Oregon. Our “meeting in the middle” has become a beloved annual tradition.
The drive to Bandon is less than 200 miles, but Barry...

Reflections
I’m 8 years old, trying to focus on what my tall, lanky fourth grade geography teacher, Mr. Brow, is saying. Suddenly, apropos of nothing, I erupt into noisy sobs. This marks my first day in a new school (the bilingual Colegio Americano) and a new location (Quito, Ecuador).
All the kids stare at me. Mr. Brow frowns, obviously concerned. I can’t explain it myself, though this is hardly the first time I’ve started sobbing for no reason in class. I’ve been breaking down during the fi...

In a workshop on stress that I taught recently for people over the age of 50, I asked what their biggest source of tension was. More than a third said, “Too much stuff!”
Some described a triple whammy: not only did they have too many possessions of their own, but they were still storing stuff belonging to their adult children, plus some things inherited from their parents — three generations of belongings coexisting in the same house.
I’ve found that letting go of our stuff is a lot like losi...

My husband Barry and I love visiting Europe, and have flown from the West Coast to somewhere on the continent almost every year since the mid-’80s. Many of our flights have been free, or close to free because we’ve used frequent-flyer miles.
Strategically accumulating miles has been hugely beneficial to us because we travel a lot. We not only have two homes — one in Eureka, California, and a second in Guanajuato, Mexico — but we also visit our far-flung family members on the East Coast, in Ca...

Whether my husband Barry and I are driving just 30 miles in our van, or flying 3,000 miles to the other side of the country, I never leave home without the following 11 items.
Although each is different, they have several things in common: they’re lightweight, they don’t require checking on an airplane, and they’re affordable.
Here’s what I pack in my bag:
Wherever I am, my journal accompanies me. Like the author Mary Gordon, I love shopping for journals when I travel, but I’m notoriously pic...

No matter how many times I walk along the Yurok Loop, I never tire of it. Whether sunlight dapples the forest path or the leaves glisten from mist, it makes no difference; just seeing the little wooden bridge at the start of the trail makes my heart leap.
The Yurok Loop is a 1 ¼-mile trail next to the Lagoon Creek Picnic Area, off U.S. Highway 101, just past the Trees of Mystery, 68 miles north of Eureka.
A couple of times a year, my husband, Barry, and I travel north in our camper van to exp...

My last haircut was in January 2020, when my husband Barry and I were on vacation in La Paz, a town on the Baja peninsula. Then came COVID.
Since I couldn’t get a haircut at a salon, I ordered a $4.00 two-sided razor comb, a nifty tool that thins hair — and I’ve never looked back. I admit it’s tricky to reach certain parts, but most of the time my hair ends up looking reasonably professional. My problem is I love the vigorous sensation of shaving my hair so much that I go overboard and end up...

Many years ago, my husband Barry and I went parachuting outside Seattle with a group of friends on a clear, beautiful afternoon. As I floated dreamily through the air, gazing at Mt. Rainier in the distance, I had no idea I was about to permanently alter an essential part of my body. In my state of euphoria, I forgot the most important instruction I’d heard that morning: to keep my knees together when I landed to avoid injuring myself.
The next thing I knew, I was on the ground hearing a hard ...

Oh, how I love paddling on Humboldt Bay. When the tide is right, I might visit Indian Slough, where the narrow wandering passageways remind me of tiny lanes I've cycled in Wales, my husband Barry's homeland. In spring, I spot nesting egrets clustered high in the cypresses and schools of sandpipers resting on the mud flats in low tide. Sometimes I weave in and out of pilings, like a slaloming skier, or see if I can squeeze through the opening of a channel marker without touching it.
As long as...

My husband Barry and I, married for 44 years, are often asked the secret to a long-term marriage. Half-jokingly, we say, “Skip the first year!”
It’s true — our first couple of years were tough. I used to feel bad about it. What was wrong with us? Where was that early romance, those “happy young married years” my grandmother used to reminisce about?
But now I get it. Both of us, myself especially, in the 2 years before we married had experienced an enormous amount of not just stress, but grief...

I would never have guessed that back in the 1930s, the entire Cal Poly Humboldt faculty (then Humboldt State College) could fit into one house for dinner.
This was one of many bits of trivia I learned on a Friends of the Dune guided tour of Lanphere Dunes earlier this spring. Thirteen of us assembled at 10 a.m. on a Saturday at the Pacific Union School in Arcata to carpool to the private Lanphere Dunes, located north of Ma-le'l Dunes.
"The first part of our walk is the hardest," warned our ve...

When I decided to give up smoking in my 20s, I resolved to enjoy my last cigarette the night before my birthday and turned my final smoke into a sacrament. I put The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" on my tinny record player, turned off the lights and sat in the dark, gazing at the slim cylindrical tip of my Marlboro until its last glowing ash faded. The ceremony was a fitting end to an era, since much of the attraction of smoking for me was not the taste but rather the ritual and romance...

The other day, opening a bottle of wine with a corkscrew, I wished for the umpteenth time that more U.S wine bottles came with screw tops. So simple!
In the U.S., wine bottles with screw tops still have a stigma and are often viewed as cheap and lower-quality (although not as tacky as boxed wine!). Not surprisingly, only 30 percent of U.S. wine bottles have screw tops, unlike many other wine-producing countries with a higher percentage: New Zealand (95 percent), Australia (80 percent), South ...