At The Sonoma Speakers Series, I was deeply moved to hear Anthony Ray Hinton tell his story. He is a black man. He was put in prison, wrongfully, on Alabama’s death row, for 28 years. I stood in a space the size of his cell... Continue
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Wildflowers enthrall me. Over the past three years, since I lost Stan and stopped working, I’ve become enchanted by the native wildflowers that brighten our hillsides once everything’s turned green. And now I’m learning when and where to find them! For a long time I... Continue
The Sonoma Friday Farmers’ Market at Depot Park is a Sonoma tradition that spans over 35 years. This outdoor event, set in the parking lot for Arnold Field, is the main source for Sonoma Valley folks to meet and shop with their local farmers and... Continue
The Pieces: Dirty cups, bowls, plates, platters, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons; an assortment of shapes of varying sizes that need to fill the rack space of the dishwasher. The Goal: Fit as many dirty dishes and utensils as possible in a fixed amount of... Continue
“We’ve been brought here for a very short time, against our will, and we don’t know why.” I love that line. What is the point of our birth and life and death? Why are we here? What is our true purpose? These thoughts keep some... Continue
Beep, Boop! Beep, Boop! The street vendor is here! Jumping up like a dog trained to respond to the sound of a bicycle horn, I grabbed a few dollars from my purse and headed out the front door. “Hola. ¿Cómo está?” I had seen this... Continue
Is the self physical or metaphysical? That is the question. The nature of self is hotly debated. Buddhist non-materialists consider the self to be a sustained hallucination, an opinion supported by some current-day neurologists who, despite all their attempts, cannot find a source of the... Continue
I’m hard-wired for formal prayer. I find myself reciting the Our Father when an earthquake hits, and oftentimes at night as I go to sleep. “How weird,” I think, stopping in the middle, but then a Hail Mary (a woman about whom I hold equally... Continue
On November 19, 2023 I attended a church service held by the Sonoma Collective Church in the theater at Sonoma Valley High School. I am not a religious person, though I had a Catholic upbringing. My mother was a devout Catholic and never missed mass. ... Continue
Think about how strange yet ordinary are space and time, here and now. Neither can be held, or for that matter seen or heard, and yet both play an undeniably important role in everyday existence. In order to experience and use them, we’ve created tangible... Continue