Every night I walked our dogs, Cordelia and Frankie, around our block.  I try to go late so the other dogs in the neighborhood are already cozy in their beds since Cordie and Frank get a bit too excited when they lay eyes on their compadres, barking and jumping and generally pulling my shoulders in…

I loved reading this tonight.  Takes me back to visiting Sarah when she was doing clinical rotations in Corpus Christi during her third year in medical school.  Much of what I wrote is still relevant today except now Sarah is a full-fledged doctor, who works in women’s health. I am sitting in the closet, literally….

A favorite time of my life was the first years of my marriage to Ray. We barely knew each other when we married in 1980, and I do mean that quite literally.  We had been friends for two years when we worked together on a psychiatric unit in Denison, Texas (I as a therapist at…

This morning, Ray and I were up at 5:30 so that we could be at St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood by 6 in order to prepare a hot meal for the homeless by 8. Already, one volunteer, Nora, was waiting for us and two of our homeless patrons as well when we opened the door…

I am doing a timed-writing with my student Riley. We are sitting in the tv room with four windows wide open and two fans running: the ceiling fan and a box fan.  The temperature outside is due to get up to 88 today, I think, which is not too bad given that LA has been experiencing…

I have just returned from the “Stories from the Heart IX” writing conference in Austin, where I had the honor of spending time in the company of the most open, honest, loving and wise women I’ve had the occasion to meet in a very long time.  I don’t even know quite how to put these…

To my beloved friend: My best friend growing up was Patricia Butler. I met her when I was three and she was four, when her family moved to my little town and began attending our tiny Episcopal mission there. Patricia was the polar opposite of me in appearance: she had big blue eyes, snow-blonde hair…

My skin is a conduit of memory. One soft touch takes me back to my sweet high school boyfriend, the first male to every caress me; one harsh squeeze reminds me of one of my college boyfriends, the only person who ever physically hurt me; one stroke on my back connects me to my mother…

Yesterday, Ray and I were up in the town of Ojai (population 8,000) where we have our orange grove. We went up there to join our daughter Liz and her fiancé Ron to attend the 4th of July parade in downtown Ojai.  Apparently every year many of the residents put their lawn chairs out on…

Yesterday, Luna and Nico went to church with us. When I told Luna at breakfast that we were going, she said, “Aw, Grandma, I don’t like church.” I shrugged. “When you visit Grandma and Grandpa on a Sunday morning, church is just what we do.” She went back to eating her oatmeal. On the way…