Chapter 53: 1949 • Sonora ~ Our parents never argued about how to raise their children. They argued about Mother’s smoking and drinking and about her housekeeping, but not about raising the kids. Mom gave the older ones a swift kick or a snapping backhand... Continue
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“Be here now,” wrote the late Richard Alpert, aka Baba Ram Dass, fellow researcher of psychedelics and consciousness at Harvard University with Timothy Leary in the 60’s, and self-made mystic sage. His instruction is easier said than done, since now is a timeless transition of... Continue
By Connie Schlelein | The Creative Spark -- Creativity has fascinated me in my education, research, teaching, and now community arts action. Something stirred in me after relocating to Sonoma Valley, with its wealth of Creatives and enviable wealth of arts organizations. This culturally alive... Continue
By Loretta Carr | For The Sun -- I had been looking forward to this trip to Palm Springs for years. Every winter my husband would hear me complain, “I’m so tired of this cold, depressing weather. I wonder what the temperature is in Palm... Continue
Chapter 52: May, 1949 • Diary of my brother (age 15): May 8 Sunday: Mother's Day, rained a little and had a rainbow. Mom went to Chico to visit Grandma. May 9 Got stamps from Jamestown bought $5.10. Jim got a '49 Jeepster, yellow.... Continue
I just returned from a visit with an old friend. We were coworkers at Visa Credit Card, many years ago. We have maintained our friendship even though we are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. People often ask me, how do you do this?... Continue
Mountain lions changed my life. In the late 1990s, a measure was put on the ballot to reverse the ban on trophy hunting of mountain lions in California. I’m not against legal hunting of ducks, deer and other prey animals, but using dogs and trackers... Continue
Life might seem more human if we put away our Devices and get out that tablet of paper and a pencil we stuck in a drawer when Technology arrived to reinvent the way we did everything – from reading and writing, to calling each other... Continue
This year, Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Coursey assigned me as the Board representative to Aging Together, a leadership committee in the county’s Adult and Aging Division. Issues impacting older adults are very important to residents of my District, so this assignment was a natural... Continue
It’s pretty easy to feel down about the state of human affairs. There’s so much greed, so much suffering, so much to feel bad about. What’s to be done when feeling blue? There are those who view the current moment as deterministic, that everything that’s... Continue