A CALLING ~ What calls us to find the ancestors? It goes beyond a simple curiosity. We are compelled, possessed by something bigger than us that is begging to be revealed. There's one in most every family called to be the scribe, and I am... Continue
Rude Awakenings
Look, I rode a donkey up the cliffs of Crete, waterskied down the Colorado River, and hiked the Cinque Terra. I trekked through the Mayan jungle and climbed Tikal. I hiked the pine forest above Rio Caliente, scaled Nevada Falls, and climbed rickety ladders to... Continue
Rumi (13th-century Persian poet and mystic) Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Pema Chodron (1936 – American-born Tibetan Buddhist teacher) Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. If... Continue
I sent a reader down a rabbit hole regarding my use of "retarded." I was schooled to use a word that doesn't insult people with disability, demean them and pain those who love them. She reproached me to do the decent thing (as if I'd... Continue
I worked for my father during the summers, in his store on Haight Street since I was twelve, saving my money for milkshakes, school clothes and college. In the early '60s, the Haight was a middle-class white neighborhood with a smaller community of Black families.... Continue
Every Tuesday night for five years, I wrote stories of my family in Stephanie Moore’s writing class. I’d no idea I was writing a memoir until I was done. When I finished, I sent drafts to my siblings and some friends. They loved it, so... Continue
Dharma: “We’ve been brought here for a very short time, against our will, and we don’t know why.” I love that line. But what is the point of our birth, life and death? Why are we here? What is our purpose? These thoughts keep some... Continue
2008, Brooke and Matt had their second child, a girl. Not long after my son and his family moved to Vancouver, Canada. They not only had the nerve to move, they took my grandchildren with them—and this is their first time back. Brooke and the... Continue
My son Matt took Satchel to Mountain Cemetery on Veterans Day to honor Satchel’s great-grandfather, Calvin Frost, and dropped him off afterward to spend the day with me. In great excitement, Satchel bursts through the front door. “Oma! Oma! Did you know that Grandpa Cal... Continue
Instructions for Satchel’s Fill-In, June 4, 2007 – Email correspondence regarding my grandson at age four; Brooke is my daughter-in-law, his mother: From me: Hi Brooke, I’m leaving today for Carmel, and then Southern California, and returning this weekend, so I won't be here to... Continue