I wrote on my computer tonight an essay considering the differences between happiness and joy, but we are at the orange grove with no Internet reception. Granted, I could walk down the road to my neighbors, but it is a dark night and I am not so inclined. I will see how the essay reads…
Month: July 2015
Rich Versus Poor, What Makes the Real Difference?
Sometimes money is not what it’s cracked up to be. I have met some of the poorest rich people and some of the richest poor people. The key seems to be to have an external focus. Self absorption does not a lovely person make. An example of a poverty-stricken rich man was someone I had…
Bach, Rain and Luna: 3 Of My Favorite Things
I am sitting in my living room, listening to J.S. Bach’s Oboe Concerto in F featuring F. Heinz Holliger. The air is cool wafting in from the open French door since we had a good steady rain a couple of hours ago. The road out front is quiet. A Sunday evening with most people around…
5 Star Recipe for Lemon Almond Cookies
My great-nephew Eli, a fellow non-eater of refined sugar, came up with this delicious and nutritious recipe for a cake-like lemon cookie sweetened with honey or agave. This is one of those recipes that you can count on. The cookies are perfect every time in taste and texture. Today I went out and pulled a…
Beethoven at the Hollywood Bowl
We were lucky enough to be invited by our neighbor, Linda Homer, to the Hollywood Bowl tonight for a picnic and then a whole evening of Beethoven performed by the LA Phil. Linda had three extra tickets so we invited our daughter Rachael to join us, as well. The seats were close to the front…
Flash Fiction Revisited: Now and Forever
Madeline was tired. She had been boxing up all sorts of antiques all afternoon since the owners, Maude and Jason Fredericks, were going out of business. These boxes would be heading to an auction where they would all go for what Maude described as “pennies on the dollar.” Madeline was especially upset about three different…
Failure and Success
I thought by the time I was in my early 60’s, I would have accomplished all sorts of impressive things. Surely, I’d have made lots of money, seen the world, had a successful career, raised lovely children, had a successful marriage and published at least three books. Here I am at 62 and I can…
Restful Evening Back in Ojai
I am listening to the classical radio station KUSC this evening and they are playing Robert Schumann’s Five Pieces in the Folk Style with Benjamin Britten on piano and Mstislav Rostropovich on cello. It is absolutely lovely, rich and resonant. We are back in Ojai for a few days. We will be working, but are…
A Reprieve from Near Death
A few years back, my husband and I were traveling from California to Texas, and I was pulling a 1958 Buick on a trailer behind our 15-passenger Ford Van. This was my husband’s idea of love at first sight – that ’58 Buick – a car from his birth year that he hoped to restore…
My Connection to Texas
Whenever I drive back to Texas, the minute I hit the border from New Mexico, a calm settles over me. Not that West Texas is my home, but still, I can see the big open sky and the flat plains and I hear that West Texas closed-mouth drawl when I stop for gas. These signal…
20 Minutes a Day 