It is twenty minutes until five on a Friday afternoon. I am going to do my best to get words on the page now so that I can have the luxury of a whole evening to do whatever I damn well please, which probably includes climbing in bed fairly early and watching tv with Ray….

I just listened to the eulogy for John Lewis delivered by former President Barack Obama. I learned a lot about John Lewis’s life, about his longstanding fight for equality and his deep-seated belief in the power of the people to preserve our democracy. President Obama described John Lewis as “a good, kind and gentle man…

I am sitting here in my living room, trying to figure out how to resume my daily writing for my blog. Over the past several weeks, I’ve read lots of other people’s writing, first in my online class where I responded to 14 students, 6 days a week for 4 weeks, and then working with…

Jillian was in the savanna with her pet giraffe, Addie. Jillian lived in the savanna because she was a student who was studying giraffes for college. It was Jillian’s day off and she and Addie were going on a hike together. They were going to the watering hole where all the animals gathered to drink….

Two Surprises in One Morning By Luna Pacheco Beaty One Saturday morning a girl named Luna and her father Gregorio went and played soccer at the soccer field. They both loved to play soccer together and this was a special time for them to spend together every week.   Unfortunately, on this Saturday the soccer…

My friend Carolyn Olman died last night of cancer -related issues. She was a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, Hollywood for 65 years and I have known her since we moved to LA in 1994 and began attending St. Thomas. I have grown to love Carolyn over these past 26 years and…

I have come to understand with myself that real writing doesn’t even begin until crappy writing is on the page. That’s when I have the leisure to go back and make something as good as I can make it at my current level in my writing development. And, yes, striving to make it better and…

I am sitting here at the orange grove. Cool air is pouring through the windows of the Airstream after a hot day. I hear music playing off in the distance, a late night Friday night celebration perhaps. Besides that faint music, all I can hear is the clicking of the clock on the wall. I…

When I was a senior in high school, I decided to try out for twirler. I had been a devoted band member, starting out with a cornet in 5th grade and eventually graduating to French horn. I definitely wanted to play French horn in concert band, but it was my senior year and I thought…

Here and now I am sitting in my living room. The grandfather clock just chimed on the half-hour. I am listening to Sacred Music from Spain on YouTube. I haven’t heard this before but it’s lovely. I try to listen to music when I’m writing that doesn’t make me want to sing along and is…