When Friday rolls around, I start watching for the week’s episode of The Lester and Charlie Show. No matter what craziness the world may have tossed our way during the previous seven days, Jeff Bond and Richard Wooley will have discovered a spot where our funny bones can be tickled. Their observations on political...
A tow-headed toddler races back and forth along the glass-sided otter pool at the San Diego Zoo. When the boy turns, the otter turns. The child laughs. The otter plays. There’s no question they’re interacting, both enjoying the game. Adults stand back and watch, caught by the moment. Watching the delighted little boy, I’m...
A few weeks ago I was thinking about the rocky journey my adult life has been. Come to think of it, I remember some stones in earlier years as well. So I wrote a post with Words for a younger self. I wanted to offer reassurance to that young, uncertain woman that life’s unexpectedness...
Franke James has a Green Conscience. Fortunately for the planet, she’s bothered by it. She’s even used that phrase as the title of a book Bothered By My Green Conscience. I’m a big fan of Franke’s visual essays. She jumps into the muck where a lot of political pundits, climate scientists, and environmentalists keep...
When I was growing up on a dead-end street in Twin Falls, Idaho, we used to shop at Dornell’s. It was one of those corner grocery stores where the proprietor knew his customers, discretely offered credit, catered to children’s love of penny candy, and kept a cooler full of ice-cold pop. I thought small-town...
I first met Surf Dog Ricochet when I was aching over some tragic deaths. I wrote You are perfect just the way you are to work through my sadness over the suicides of six young gay men. I was angry with those who directly and indirectly drove them to feel so unworthy they took...
The first time I listened to a recording of IZ, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, I felt my heart split wide open. I’ve loved the song since I first heard Judy Garland sing it in The Wizard of Oz, but Iz’s version was like hearing it for the first time. It wasn’t...
This morning Julia Dinsmore (aka @nothosepeople on Twitter) sent met a link that made my heart sing. Julia knows a lot about injustice and heartache. She also knows a lot about hope. And she knows a lot of good people, like Mary Johnson, whose story is told in the trailer below (and who will...
This morning one of my Twitter pals, @guurrbi, sent a link to photos he had just uploaded on Facebook. The link is public. You don’t have to be registered on Facebook to enjoy these birds from Cooktown, Queensland, Australia. That’s where Nugal-warra Elder, Wilfred (Willie) Gordon and Judy Bennett run Guurrbi Tours. I’m fascinated...
Joan Macintyre gave a talk about Kebzeh today. She called it a 26,000-year-old tradition, but I’d never heard of it. Joan’s been studying Kebzeh for thirty years. She is animated but speaks slowly enough we could sit with what she was telling us, roll it around in our minds, feel it and taste it....
Twitter
Facebook