If your day were an invisible friend, what would it look like? — Meet Bodhi. No, we did not get another dog. We have our Ruby, and she is our beloved heart-opening canine, and brave protector from all things Squirrel Nation. She is our love doctor. Our comedy channel. And our marriage counselor. No one could want more from a dog. Bodhi is…

Finding Stuff You Lost — Oh my goodness. Four things. FOUR THINGS I found! Things 1 and 2. You know how you buy a pair of airpods, and then maybe you lose the holder? And you turn the house upside down to find the holder? Now you have the holder, but you can no longer…

Jury Duty, evening routine, yellow leaves — Jury Duty The mail came in and I was called to jury duty. I filled everything out, and sent it back. Weeks later, the actual summons came. I am one of those very few who are excited about jury duty. I wanted to be part of this process. …

Shifting my gaze from grousing to gratitude. — I’m tired of complaining. Tired of reciting the liturgy of angst, as my thumb swipes its way — bead by bead by bead — through the images, a digital mala that chants, “Like and Subscribe! You’ll feel better!” I never feel better. It’s just nose candy only for the eyes. Doesn’t…

A short poem — The flame has no agenda. Not at all. She just hangs on to the wick with her feet and heats the softening wax that feeds her. The wax has no agenda either. She raises her melting wings to the dark, and weeps herself into the tableau of past deeds and choices…

“What do they want me to feel so that my wallet will open?”] — Have you ever spent a week watching the media around you, and asking yourself, “What do they want me to feel so I’ll buy their product?” It’s eye-opening. Most of us know that algorithms ‘decide’ what to show us — on social media, on the news and tv shows we…

What I remembered in a hopeless moment. — Lately, we’ve been dealing with minor disasters (and by ‘we’ I mean pretty much everyone I know). We’ve been regrouping, only to be hit by much bigger ones. We run to the bathroom, throw up, wash our faces, then bite down hard and think, “Okay. We can do this. What’s…

In this moment, I’ve got nothing that improves on silence. Just as well, because what I do have would only add to the cacophony that’s already burying what precious silence might help us find our way in this world. I almost followed that up with a show-offy list of things…

Can we sit still long enough to see clearly? — It’s time to be still. (Read that sentence again. Then do it before reading on.) Trauma, horror, devastation are everywhere — whether because of mankind’s violence or because of nature’s response to our ignorance and greed. We can doomscroll or we can look away. Neither will make us feel better…