I have a friend who is doing some work for one of the Internet’s earliest entrepreneurs. He started out from humble roots – one of his earliest entrepreneurial endeavors was collecting wayward hubcaps and selling them to a local body shop. But he also had an aptitude for computers so he earned himself a scholarship to Stanford. One of his first businesses was the only … Continue reading You Get What You Pay For
Somewhere far up NORTH There is a place I call it the Land Of The White Numbers In this strange land of sleepy wonders Father sun is absent, well hidden Is he unbidden, I ponder. In this land I see lines Inclines In the eternal dance Of contrasts The White, the cold Numbers Create ruptures Structures In The Land Of The White Numbers The cycle of … Continue reading The Land Of The White Numbers
Going back and reviewing our own writing can be a good way to gain insight into where our mind is. Plus, it’s fun! Continue reading Your Pen Talks- Do You Listen?
Have you ever browsed through buy nothing or free-cycle listings? The posts for items people are giving away for free are delightfully creative. Recently, a friend turned me on to them and the micro-stories were so intriguing. Here are some examples: Example #1: I can get rid of it now that the son-of-a-b!tch is gone. Example #2: I should have known that I’d never use … Continue reading Micro-Stories
Why does change get a bad rap? Our cells are dying and being replaced continuously. I think the skin on your pinky finger will completely slough off by the time you finish reading this post. Okay, I admit, I just made that metric up and this post isn’t THAT long. But generally speaking, we’re always changing, right? David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who teaches at Stanford, … Continue reading Ch-ch-changes
The mom of one of my dearest friends passed away recently. I’ve known this family for almost 50 years, so she was like a second mom to me as well. Because her death was expected, I’d been dancing with grief for a couple of weeks before it actually happened. But even so, when I heard the news, a heaviness settled onto me. It was sadness … Continue reading The Therapeutic Effect of Stringing Some Words Together
The other day I clicked on a headline that was presented to me on the default home page for my browser. It was something like, “This is the best hike in Washington.” The article that it took me to was crap. So much for AI generated content. While it did name the trail, it gave its location as something south of the border with British … Continue reading The Internet Is Sometimes Desperate
Entering 2024 and looking at our common ground made me want to turn the whole New Year Resolution idea upside down.
Instead of wanting to change or hope for something else(whatever that is), I wanted to build a tower of Gratitude.
Continue reading The Tower Of Gratitude
A couple of weeks ago, I took my kids to a performance of The Nutcracker. As an indication of how steeped they are in the style of the Pacific Northwest, where getting dressed up means putting on your good fleece, I said something my eight-year-old daughter about wearing a dress. She practically choked out the words, “What do you mean, dress?” But I digress before … Continue reading A Note About Style and Newspapers
The Ramana Maharshi self-inquiry meditation inspired my “Who am I?” poem. I send massive gratitude to Ramana Maharshi for inspiring me to shape this poem. – Who am I? I was born in the city of Isfahan That’s the place my parents met They fell in love, danced the flame of love and drama kind of – Who am I? I am a daughter A Sister A … Continue reading Who am I?
It’s that time of year again when people think about the new year and how they’d like to make changes in their lives going forward. We often refer to these proposed life modifications as “new year’s resolutions.” The other day, while stepping out of the shower, the idea hit me—insights come as flashes of insight and often at the strangest times—that the way we verbalize … Continue reading Repost: The Importance of Language When Making New Year’s Resolutions
This is a blog reading quickie- neither as exciting or satisfying as the other type of quickie you may have imagined- or maybe that was just me… Continue reading A Quickie…Not That Kind!
A Quick Update It’s been a hectic time in my life. As some of you know, I got offered a job in and out of Fiji. In preparation for this job, I spent the last few months reminding myself how to fly an aeroplane. That included returning to Hong Kong for a simulator check to renew my license. What was the result of all this hard work? Well, … Continue reading I Took a Break From Writing and I Didn’t Miss It
The other day I was editing a post I’d written about the dichotomy between gratitude and greed when a similar post popped up from the delightful and lovely blogger, Julia Preston. It wasn’t exactly the same – she was talking about a similar tension between love and fear. But it was close enough that I felt my internal defensiveness spark off instantly. Something like a … Continue reading Am I Copying? Getting Over Writing Defensiveness
The last time I took a new job I wasn’t a writer. Well, I wrote white papers and technical manuals so I could put pen to paper. But I didn’t have a personal writing practice. But four months into a new job and I’m surprised how much creativity is a part of my job. Sheesh, that sounded dry. Bear with me – I think I’m … Continue reading Creativity as a Job Skill
Two days ago, I was in the car with my friend on the way to listen to a book reading. As we drove, my friend commented on how observant my four-year-old son is. It immediately sparked some stories about conversations we have when he’s riding in the back seat of the car. Like on a recent frosty morning when we passed a baseball field and … Continue reading Creatively Seeing
What happens when your husband dies in an avalanche and then you marry his best friend? It’s a fascinating question that artist and writer Jennifer Lowe-Anker set out to answer in her 2009 book Forget Me Not. The Backstory Jennifer Lowe-Anker was married to the famous climber, Alex Lowe, and they had three sons together. When Alex had another really early morning departure for a … Continue reading Climbing to The Top of the Rankings
At a recent elementary school open house, my daughter’s third grade teacher said something profound. Well, she said a lot of wise things, because the knowledge of teachers is immense. But one particularly thing about writing and reading that caught my ear. Here it is – that she looks for books for these young readers to be either “windows” or “mirrors.” Windows are the books … Continue reading Writing Windows and Mirrors
My adventure is coming to an end. I couldn’t think of a better way to mark the occasion than by finishing the poem that I started at the beach in Malaga at the beginning of my trip. Finishing and publishing this poem feels like coming full circle. An incredibly beautiful journey of over 850 km of steps and endless talks. Continue reading I wonder as I wander
Jesus wept. The shortest sentence in the Bible. As a pastor’s kid, this is the type of trivia that I know. Although I know I’m not alone, and that one doesn’t have to be a Bibliophile to know this. The short sentence has power. You couldn’t guess that I know this from my writing though. The readability analysis of my writing is forever telling me … Continue reading The Power of Short Sentences
