The Mount Everest Expedition for Global Peace will not be Phurba’s first climb up Everest. He’s trekked it before and understands the immense effort and the near-mystic sense of accomplishment when standing on top of the world.
When three women of a certain age pack their cameras, board a whale watching vessel docked in Oxnard, California, destined for the […]
I want to rest knowing that my granddaughter can leave her electronic tools and digital noise and fall asleep to the tick, tock, tick, tock rhythm, punctuated on the hour and half hour with a mellow chime of solid brass.
Not everyone agrees that your or my collective carbon footprint amounts to a hill of beans. Others shiver at the thought of another law or more government. And those who profit greatly from fossil fuels are the first to challenge any notion of the need to reduce one’s carbon footprint.
Last November, I asked to review Judith Fein’s recently published book, The Spoon from Minkowitz. She forwarded the PDF copy with follow-up emails probing my thoughts about the book. “I’m captivated,” I emailed. “I was worried that only Jews would relate to the book,” Fein returned. No. This is a book for all cultures. The premise of Fein’s new book captured my curiosity for many reasons, and I greedily wanted to be among the first to read it. First. I hoped that […]
When I try to remember the best Christmas ever, it’s impossible. It’s not that I never had a best Christmas ever. But no single memory explodes into smiling snowflakes and flashing Christmas tree lights. The same goes with the worst Christmas ever. They exist somewhere in my memory like empty beer cans tossed under a sparcely decorated dead Christmas tree. Selective memories fade in time and prove that each moment is temporary. Some moments are like the whiff of a freshly peeled orange […]
Yes, I am cherry picking words from the recently published Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis. I can’t slow dance with every statement in the document–I guess I’m too independent. Yet, when it comes to the well-being of humanity, I can not quit sloshing about in my happy dance upon hearing a person of immense influence speak against the loud vocalizations of what I must term as the politically far right. Years back, when I first heard the bellowing of the likes of Limbaugh, […]
A landmark birthday nears and I’m not as ambivalent as with other landmark birthdays: 40, 50, and 60. Reflection is like a mirror that won’t break and leave my presence. Some memories delight me and others can bring the flow of tears. I see the young faces of those who died in their youth. They remain young forever. No gray hair. No limps. No lumps. Bright eyes. Smooth skin. Abundant dreams–albeit unfulfilled. When a mirror captures me, I spin away so as […]
Passionate and powerful writers lay their words on cyber paper about the state of racism in America today. Some scribe and speak (lightly veiled) disgust towards the Civil Rights Act and the fact that America’s president is partially black—of certain African descent, no less. Others, and possibly the majority–based on the last presidential election—are color blind. Barack Obama’s karma led him to rekindle and review the state of racism in America. What I’ve read and heard during this 50th anniversary of the […]
Also seen in SLO New Times & Santa Maria Sun On an August afternoon 36 years ago, my world flipped upside down. I was 27 years old, mother to a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. My college career was on hold while my husband considered a graduate degree. But that wasn’t going to happen because on this one August day a deadly accident terminated our dreams. This accident killed my husband and I stood in the desert wind unsure how I would move forward […]
