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When Only Kindness Makes Sense

On March 17, 2020 / Bereavement and End of Life, Health / 17 Comments

362 Just before our fortieth wedding anniversary in 2008, I drive my husband Vic to Strong Hospital where he’s being treated for lymphoma. The long drive is familiar after two years. Spring-green hillsides shout May vitality and

Choose What You Love

143 I lie in the dark in my lover’s arms listening to his slow sleeping breath. I’ve known him just a few months, but he’s the man I want to marry. A streetlight on West Seneca Street

Dreaming the Earth Mother, Searching for Ground

On February 18, 2020 / Creativity, Health, Psychology and Mythology / 16 Comments

278 I’ve always felt grounded, sturdy in my hiking boots on a challenging trail, but there is no “always” in bodies. We change constantly, quickly or slowly. In 2013, as my L ear roared and the hearing

When Joy Breaks Through Grief

On February 4, 2020 / Bereavement and End of Life, Family and Friends, Nature / 9 Comments

383 In 2010, eighteen months after my husband died, I longed for relief from constant sorrow, so joined three friends for an adventure to Gasparilla Island, Florida. Instead of sunshine and warmth, we faced unusually cold, cloudy

Artemis Adopts a Pup: A Fanciful Ancient Greek Diary

On January 21, 2020 / Psychology and Mythology / 19 Comments

169 September I’ve had dogs all my life, so I should know how to raise them. The God Pan brought me a litter of six black pups and said they could be trained to hunt lions. I

When We Were Almost Poor

On January 7, 2020 / Family and Friends, Political Action / 25 Comments

231 “I hear a baby calling,” I said to my husband Vic in 1970. After a day at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we were driving toward the tiny stucco house we rented near a walnut orchard

Here Comes the Sun

On December 24, 2019 / Nature, Psychology and Mythology / 17 Comments

174 It won’t be long before the Earth is tinged with color in the snowy land where I live. In these cold dark days, it helps to remember Nature is preparing for a new season. Through the

How to Build a Heart Fire

On December 10, 2019 / Family and Friends / 25 Comments

219 The sky darkened from dusk to inky blue. Disco the sweet black pup became an exhausted brat jumping on my old dog Willow, biting at the leash when she went out for a last pee, mad

Now Our Minds Are One: An Iroquois Prayer of Gratitude

On November 26, 2019 / My Land and Home, Spirituality / 15 Comments

262 This ancient prayer of Thanksgiving comes from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. The prayer is used to give thanks, bless gatherings, and greet the day. I plan to read it at a Thanksgiving gathering this year and

On Iroquois Land

On November 12, 2019 / My Land and Home, Psychology and Mythology / 36 Comments

608 “Why don’t you write about the Iroquois?” my son Anthony said. His eyes gleamed with enthusiasm. “The people who lived here had a Matriarchal Democracy. Perfect!” “Good idea,” I said. “It’s embarrassing how little I know.”