Category Archives: Uncategorized

In between church and Kool and the Gang I want to say a few things about July 4th. It is a holiday that I am most ambivalent about. “Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic,” begins Mr. Frederick Douglass in his famous speech, quoted so often (and sometimesContinue reading “What To YOU is the 4th of July?”

Today was an auspicious day: the first time I turned down an invitation since I got to Los Angeles. Why is that auspicious? Because I am in a new city, a place where I have had to start over making friends. I’ve been in this situation before, several times; it is a challenging and alsoContinue reading “Kissing Frogs Along the Way”

“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic.” Toni Morrison, Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing is the full experience of getting hit with an idea — or image, or sentence — and then getting all theContinue reading “Legacies of Fathers”

Last week I said I would write about fear this week. We’ll see what happens… Most every morning I read the devotional, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young. https://www.jesuscalling.com/ Last Thursday it read in part, “Let trust and thankfulness stand guard, turning back fear before it can gain a foothold.” IContinue reading “Onion or Fortress?”

Run-fromming. This is a word that Pastor Smith spoke in his message today. He said he mis-spoke it, but I am wondering if God didn’t just “drop that on his spirit,” as he is wont to say. Because, I mean, run-fromming is amazing, and an awfully useful term when you think it about it. It’sContinue reading “Running To and From”

Wouldn’t it be great if there were practice runs for losing loved ones? Like they pass on but just temporarily, so that you can do the work that seems to come out of losing someone close, and then get to use those lessons you’ve gained towards a better relationship. I’ve been doing a lot ofContinue reading “Puzzling Over People”

“You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family, an’ they’re still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge ’em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don’t.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Is it friends ‘n’ family or friends versus family? Do we have to chooseContinue reading “Friends? Or Family? What’s it Gonna Be?”

It’s raining in sunny Southern California right now. (And they said it never rains here). I was supposed to play tennis today and it was cancelled! Do you know how few things get cancelled due to weather here? Whereas that was life on the East coast. We even had a phrase for it, weather permitting,Continue reading ““But Girl, Don’t They Warn Ya? It Pours”*”

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I want to talk about capitalism. (Might sound like a non-sequitur, but stay with me). Feeling so full today. Full of love — coming in and going out — filled with hope and gratitude and excitement. And a little sorrow. Missing my mother, even as I was so celebrated by myContinue reading “A Day Late: A Dollar Short”

I just need to say some stuff about poetry and what a medicinal cure it can be. It’s holistic, like poets are a fringe society of healers. Many of you have heard a poem — or even written one — and felt transformed. Like your molecules were rearranged. Or put back in order. Or floatedContinue reading “Ode to Odes”