In my morning workout, I was swept out of my usual reverie by a vocal. Most of the time my Pandora musical feed keeps me happy and in rhythm with instrumental music. My station is a mix of contemporary/jazz/Spanish guitar which for me is just right. At first, I was annoyed, it was a slowish […]
Dilemma Finds Solution A Song, The Quandary, A Team Read More »
Way back in the middle 1970s, I cooked in a restaurant. I was a pretty good cook, having had the dubious distinction of being the only one who could be in the kitchen when Dad was doing his cyclone-like chef act. Dad had learned to cook by “stealing with his eyes”, as he said, watching
Mushroom Soup: Loss, Harry, Gratitude Read More »
May is American Cheese Month. No, I don’t mean American Cheese (Kraft Singlets, that hideous impostor masquerading as or feigning to be cheese.) Granted, those singlets were the” perfect melt,” producing an immediate bright orange gooey ooze that dripped dramatically off the burger, providing a mouth-watering visual. It melted as quickly as its single-serving polyethylene
Failure or Success? A Perfect Melt, Transformation, Kayaking in Kona Read More »
After some crazy (for us) storms and the roughest winter drought-parched California has seen in a while, spring seems to be arriving. Sun! It is a source of great joy and energy for me. Piles of bunched daffodils on sale in the grocery store are almost free. I buy them by the fistfuls and put
Joy: Neighbors, Regulation, Intergenerational Transmission Read More »
When I was young and deeply involved in Latin American anti-imperialist political work, the freedom fighters who organized and fought clandestinely against authoritarian dictatorships were called La Resistencia, the resistance. They boldly left their insignia, a capital R in a circle, as their quiet battle cry to show that they were not vanquished, ferociously not
Rock and Roll: Freedom Fighters, Window Shopping, A Cradle Read More »
In cheesemaking holes are not flaws. In fact, we call them eyes. In a specific family of cheeses, the “Alpine” cheeses, by design, the cultures ripen, grow and bubble with a lovely, sometimes deliciously smelly aromatic gas that puffs up inside the curd and makes for the little, cavernous jewels. The process is called “eye
Eye Formation: Holes, Sight, Story Read More »
(In the US, the nickname “March Madness” refers to a historical obsession with college basketball during the month of March.) Hyper-attuned to invisibility, I perk up abruptly when I hear a remarkable but “dated” story. How could I have missed that? Such was the case when Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf came to my awareness. His name was
March Madness: Repetition, Fatherlessness, Meaning Read More »
Warning, this blog contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some readers. My best friend in kindergarten was Robin Fields. What a great name! She recently popped into my mind out of absolutely nowhere. Strange how memory is. I don’t recall ever thinking of her. Robin was so pretty and feminine, with shiny strawberry
Fields: Energy, Transformation, Transcendence Read More »
Occasionally, I read a book because it has been hanging out on the NY Times Bestseller List for so long that I feel I need to know what “everyone” is reading to keep up with the times. No, I am NOT talking about The Body Keeps the Score, which has been a fixture on the
To Be or Not to Be: Love? Presence, Attachment Read More »
Back when I was in college, I remember the Maoists used to say, “Women hold up half the sky.” Although I was never a Maoist, I always loved this image of women, muscled arms upstretched, supporting at least half of this wide world of ours. As we approach International Women’s Day, it continues to shock
Half the Sky: Valor, Grief, Transformation Read More »