Dependence Day

Dependence Day I awake most every morning from a bad dream—this varies from a stressful or troubling scenario to an outright nightmare. It’s so hard to start a day like that. I get off on the wrong foot even before putting my foot on the floor on the right side of my bed. I write … Read more

Thirty-eight

On June 2, 1986, John and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in our little condo in Santa Ana, CA. We were babies. Apparently, cotton is the tradition (gift) for that 2nd year. I just learned that this very minute. That seems right since I had stacks of soft cotton receiving blankets in the nursery. … Read more

Caterpillar Soup For You!

We’ve been front and center in Portland watching my grandson’s science experiment, a Cup of Caterpillars. (If you watch this short video, you see that the caterpillars hang on tight to their “ceiling”—and this is important.) Unfortunately, we left before the butterfly finale. Watching this evolving miracle, I was reminded of the words from last … Read more

More to This

More to This   A beloved pointed out these flowers (“The Pink Dogwood”) because the petals point upward to the sky.   I wonder how they have such strength to go against gravity. Now I see them everywhere. I’ve been taking photos of them because I think the delicate petals are looking up–reaching up, imagining … Read more

Thoughts on Love

Thoughts on Love     Speaking of love, I met Anne Lamott once, and by “met,” I mean fangirled. She may have been accosted at her speaking event in Corta Madera, CA. Today is publication day for her new book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love. I rapid-fire downloaded the Kindle and Audible versions this morning so … Read more

What Do I Wear?

  What Do I Wear?   At the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State, there’s a jungly showcase—lush towers of green. Bottom to top, seamless, monochromatic, intricately adorned trees dressed by Nature’s Tailor.  Trunk after trunk bear tangled arms and fingers that reach out one to another in majestic hand-holding. Many engaged in a … Read more

Voices

Voices   From upstairs I could hear a conversation coming from the kitchen.   John’s voice.   I wondered who he was talking to.   And then I heard Joey answer his dad. I thought, “Joey’s here!?” and so I yelled out.   “JOEY!?”   My voice woke me   and then the realization it … Read more

Urgent Alert

I hear the whirlwind whip, the pummeling, relentless rain, and the sudden, extended chime on my phone: the National Weather Service warning me of flash flooding.   It’s been “flooding” for a while over here, guys. Maybe where you are, too.   I look back down at my computer and re-read the two quotes I’ve … Read more

The Heal

“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. … Read more

So Be It

It’s that thing where you read a random quote and you so completely identify with it you say, This is me—I embody these words. This quote tells my story and my state in just one, razor-sharp, spot-on, succinct, nailed-it line. Metaphorically, I slapped this name tag on my New Year’s Eve pajamas by posting it … Read more