Booksmart: Grounds for Confession I spend a lot of time reading and listening to good stuff—wise words from teachers I respect. I’ve done this my entire adult life. Generally, I’m eager to learn new insight, ways I can be a better human, more at peace, closer to God, etc. I use this wise stuff … Read more
What I Know For Sure Yesterday, on my bike, I was on a desolate trail with no one around for miles—except for a man on a mountain bike who said he needed directions. He looked like he could be anyone’s husband—late 30’s/40ish, fit, nice-looking, dressed the part (decked out in his bike wear), … Read more
Iteration The first time I experienced this loss was in my role as an aunt. I can pinpoint the moment with Mindy when I felt the “iteration” sting begin. And that’s not even the right word. I haven’t found one yet for this slow process of a child morphing into an adult. For years … Read more
This Close There’s a song on the current playlist on Sirius Coffee House Channel and one of the lines is, “I wish I could un-love you.” It made me think of things I regret, wish I could un-do, and various ways to tweak that line in the song—one was, “I wish I could un-say that.” (In … Read more
Intent This is Jared. He’s one of my handsome nephews. Do you see how white the whites of his eyes are? That’s the real deal, no photoshop, folks. I think that white reflects his good insides, his intent. Here’s an excerpt from The Little Love That Could where I mention clear-eyed, Handsome Jared: “At … Read more
Color Thankfulness These are bell peppers grown in my parents’ garden. I fried them yesterday to have with our dinner and I drank in the color as much as I did the taste. The visual alone is intoxicating. I did the same thing the day before, as I drove up the 99 highway … Read more
Twangy Wedding Night Music I’m not really a country music fan, per se. I love most all live music and there is some country I like, (I even have some in my iTunes library) but as a rule, I’m straight up tuned into Sirius XM Coffee House. So it’s safe to say—until now— … Read more
A Little Bird Told Me What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am.—Eckhart Tolle When I was a little girl and a bird pooped on my head, Grandma Josephine said it was good luck—she said this via our Italian-to-English translator, my mom, Grandma Josephine’s … Read more
Pushing Pamela The last four hills on the West Ridge Trail leading to the “Top of the World” (Laguna Beach) are the hardest. I should say, the last “middle two” of those four are the hardest. So #3 and #2 are real beasts. #4 is no biggie and #1 is also a relative peace-a-pie, … Read more
The Call of the Wild I hop on my mountain bike and my suburbia becomes my “Animal Planet’s Wild Kingdom.” It’s my call of the wild. Queue Rainforest Café sound effects. Today it was a pack of bobcats. I saw three bobcats, but to be fair, I only saw the tail end … Read more