Check Your Heart When Employing Words

February 14, 2019

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?

Desert Bouquets–Nature’s Gift to the Senses

January 27, 2019

But what nature insists on showing us, just like the flowers I captured during my January walk through the desert, is how nature keeps giving sensual delights despite the constant assault that you and I place upon it. These are simple things that unite us. These a pleasures that we can easily have in common. These are treats that come for free. These leave permanent moments while the effort to divide us is impermanent on every level. 

2018 Saved by Kindness

December 16, 2018

Despite the endless coffee stain, it was the magic of family and friends that kept 2018’s light burning.  So this is a thank you to a long list of kind people who have made a difference during my personally challenged moments.

A Fall Family Outing–Jalama Beach Style

October 9, 2018

Jalama Beach also offers a look into California history. The Jalama Creek estuary, as noted by one of the signs posted, was once a Chumash Village. Both grandchildren actually found that interesting, especially when they learned that the chert we found on the beach was collected by the Chumash and fashioned into arrowheads and blades. That led to a hunt for what my grandson thought would make a perfect carving stone. He found one, but decided to leave it on the beach.

A Personal Report: Coastal Cleanup Day

September 18, 2018

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.