And life’s serendipitous imp flew with me from the California coast to our landing in the Sonoran Desert last October. The objective was to physically heal. I’ve spent the last four months among saguaros, palo verde trees, wild coreopsis blooming next to chaparral and creosote shrubs. The massive structure of the Mayo Clinic outlines the horizon to the east. Westerly is the opened desert where coyotes and rabbits play hide and seek, and concludes my days in neon orange and purple sunsets.
Category: Life
Check Your Heart When Employing Words
A drive through social media showcases this variable landscape accelerated by nitromethane. While some focus their use of language on beauty and bright opportunity, others take a verbal trek into the macabre world of finger-pointing and scapegoating.
What do you feel in your heart and mind when you read other’s words? Are you inspired to be a better person or do you want to go out there and kick some ass? Do you feel comfort in those words or do you feel your blood pressure rise to unhealthy levels? What happens within you when you read positive and kind words about others and the world around us, versus mocking and hateful language about others and the world around us?
On a Walk After the Rain
Like a reflection in a desert puddle after the rain, life’s abstract moments challenge my view, troubles my heart. Desert air reeks like an old wet dog… Read more “On a Walk After the Rain”
The Beauty Within
I awoke early Saturday with the word “Within.” Huh? What’s that all about? The light was nice outside, I grabbed Oly and explored Within. It… Read more “The Beauty Within”
A Personal Report: Coastal Cleanup Day
At a time when our 24 hour news cycle broadcasts little joy, the enthusiasm of the volunteers who came to do nothing but pick up other people’s trash and garbage, shed a certain kind of light to blot out all the negative headlines of the day. At our locale, most volunteers were locals— some partnered with a friend or family, and some represented local groups. Visitors from Livermore and San Jose, (both cities about 200 miles north of San Simeon) also joined in the effort to keep our wastes from slipping into the Pacific Ocean.
5 Ways to Pull Out of Life’s Riptides
We can’t stop a rip current. But we can heed the warnings, and we should learn how to get ourselves out of a rip current if we are sucked into one. And so it goes with our personal efforts at finding peace. A sudden world event can pull our peace away. Once caught in the current, we may become another casualty.
More Ways to Stop Everyday Bigotry
A few years back, a man of Filipino heritage, a licensed pharmacist, purchased a local drug store. An elderly woman, clearly of Caucasian heritage, approached this pharmacist with a rant about how she was sick and tired of “all you Chinamen taking our jobs.”
The Crook, Liar, & Joan of Arc
This is a story of our times. It is a story of criminals, liars, gullibility, and faith.
Words that Sear — Walk Away
While a conveyor of human kindness prevails, there are those who fall prey to a provocateur with a whip that cracks through space and burns with words… Read more “Words that Sear — Walk Away”
2017 — Part 2. The Cancer Within
Through these 12 months, a medical cancer did strike my friends and colleagues. It was as if a deluge of rogue cells from what I call cancer-world rained on many people I know. And at the same time it never dawned on me that, I, a breast cancer survivor, should have kept my umbrella at hand.
The Muse Pallet 