When you visit my home, a bronze Quan Yin sits in her meditative pose atop a lotus flower. Her eyes are downcast; her right hand evokes attention or mindfulness, while her left hand rests on her knees and holds a vase of water. This goddess of compassion dominates my living area. A guest room is devoted to this bodhisattva, as is a portion of the garden outside of that room. Why the multiple effigies of Quan Yin? She is both the “ […]
When I finally stepped up the cell phone ladder to my lavender BlackBerry I realized that I had wasted too many years with a plain old cell phone. However, over the last few years I covertly used my BlackBerry in public. I didn’t want to look like some stubborn, technology-ignorant senior citizen. Wait! I must reclaim that comment as I flashback to my bestie, EP (a cool guy in his 80s), when we had a lunch date and he stood in front […]
As seen in New Times SLO Once again this nation has discharged the looney-tunes world of uncompromising gun ownership. Meanwhile, the planet no longer politely speaks and now hands us looney-tune climate conditions. Rude is rampant. Gun fanatics scream while Mother Earth kicks us like an old tin can. I’m feeling like I might want to resurrect one of those bomb shelters from the early 1960s. I thought correlating guns and climate change was clever and original until I searched and found […]
1956: Blub, blub, blub. Wheeze, whistle, spit. KABOOM! A silver lid with an attached gauge becomes a projectile and looks like a flying saucer shooting forth from its aluminum pot base. Scalding hot water takes to the air. Someone screams, “Oh, my God,” in the background, followed by a 3-pound beef brisket that explodes like the A-bomb tests out in the Nevada desert. A mushroom cloud of brown meat rises above the white Westinghouse range. Shrapnel-like bits of beef plaster themselves to […]
After a second helping of the Christmas dinner lasagna, I felt as round as the blow-up snowman on our deck that stoically waves to passersby. I adjusted my stuffed body on the couch and grumbled, “I designate 2012 as the year of not saying Thank You.” Now, I know I’m not an etiquette queen, but jeeze, do folks no longer find it necessary to simply utter “thank you” once in a while? Are thank you notes a thing of the past? Heck, […]
Northern Elephant Seals arriving at the Piedras Blancas rookery north of San Simeon, California, have begun the annual winter winter birthing season. The first pup was born mid December. Each pup weighs between 60 and 80 pounds at birth. (C. Coimbra photo)
It’s the art of seeking good that is the art of seeking God for others. But without grace the search stifles. Grace […]
Today I heard the best security question ever. But, first, a quick back story. In 2009 I took out a secured loan. A small balance remained. Presently, I’m near the end of standing naked in an allegorical spread-sheet format before bankers, credit companies, loan specialists, underwriters, and other such entities in the mortgage refinance business. “The underwriters would like you to pay off that 2009 secured loan,” noted one of the above persons. “Please show the account that you used to pay […]
I discovered yesterday that my sensitivity to spoken words is a weakness, a fault, and a chip on my shoulder. Admittedly, I’m a sensitive person. I can cry watching car commercials. Tears flood my eyes when I watch adorable pet videos on You Tube. A beautifully worded poem will cost my box of tissue about 10 tissues. When a soulful guitar solo wafts towards my ears, the whites of my eyes turn red and I sniffle through the song. Yes, I’m a […]
It was a gardening-perfect day. The sun poured light like glistened milk from heaven into my garden lot. Towering spouts of gray […]
The Muse Pallet 