Driving on autopilot.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but the other day I was driving to see my sweet mom, who lives a few towns away from me. I was listening to an album I know well. Traffic wasn’t horrible. The weather was good. And when I got to her house, I realized I didn’t […]
The Deck We Don’t Use.
The deck we don’t use. Last year we redid our deck. It had been built with basic builder’s grade wood – nothing fancy, and never meant to last. It didn’t hold paint well, it needed constant maintenance, and no matter how many times we power-washed or re-stained, it still looked tired. So we made a […]
Black and White Cookies. Right Here. Right Now.
One of the things Darren and I enjoy most about traveling (I would actually say THE thing Darren and I enjoy most about traveling…) is the food. On our first visit together to New York, I introduced him to one of my favorite spots on the Upper West Side: the legendary delicatessen called Zabar’s. […]
The Gathering – and creative possibility.
During my last year of college, I was fortunate enough to meet a red-headed spit fire of a friend named Meranda. She was from the rough and tumble town of Elko, Nevada, and she introduced me to one of the loves of my life: Cowboy Poetry. More specifically, to The Annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering that […]
Contemplative Practice.
Like I mentioned in the previous post, my voice disappeared last week. It’s back now, mostly, but having absolutely no voice for almost 10 days gave me a lot of time for silence. Ironically – or not – and as uncomfortable as it is, silence is sometimes exactly what my personality needs. It’s the contemplative […]
Precarious pumpkins – and managing our overwhelm.
Precarious Pumpkins and managing our overwhelm. I drove behind a pick-up truck on the freeway today that had its bed CHOCK FULL of pumpkins. Like really, really full. Those pumpkins were not tied down or secured and I found myself wanting to pass quickly by. One bump would have sent one – or many […]
Korean Stairs – and embracing your ‘uneven.’
My sister-in-law, who spent time in Korea during the 1990s doing church service, recently told me something fascinating about how traditional Korean stairs were built. Apparently, construction focused more on function and adaptability than precision. Builders had to work with local materials and uneven ground, often without using standardized tools or measurements. As a result, […]
Levi Strauss & 7 Iterations.
In 1853, a young 24 year old immigrant named Levi Strauss, settled in San Francisco. According to Kat Olvera, Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829 and moved to the East Coast of the United States in 1847, where he began to work for his brothers’ dry-goods business. Strauss made the move to San […]
A is for Apple – and a few other things.
As a lot of you know, my birthday is on Halloween. So in my mind, fall activities, festivities, and feasts are often tied to my birthday. My cute mom, knowing that I didn’t particularly like the scariness of Halloween but knowing that I did like the attention of a birthday, did her very best to […]
Hummingbirds and 4 dimensions of energy.
A few mornings ago, I was taking the garbage out. I went outside through our garage and when I turned to go back inside, I noticed a bird – or what I thought was a bird – swiftly flying around the ceiling area of the garage. I quickly realized the creature was a hummingbird. We […]
