Next Monday I will be starting an online class for women through Story Circle Network that is entitled, “Writing 20 Minutes a Day for 29 Days.” I have offered this class for several years now and students who participate report that it is scary at first committing to 20 minutes a day for 6 days…
Back Home Feeling Good About My Weekend
Back home. Happy to be here though I loved being up in Ojai. I am delighted, however, to be missing the 100-degree temperatures up there this afternoon. I have a list of tasks completed in Ojai that makes me smile: Our storage bins are much better organized than they were last week. Edison is putting…
Our Camping Trip Comes to An End
Ray and I are still here at the orange grove in Ojai. All of our kids and grandkids have gone back to LA except for Liz, who is in her little house working hard an online exam for a financial planning course she’s taking. The dogs and Ray are lounging in chairs around the fire…
Saying Yes to Swimming
I haven’t been swimming in years. Quite literally. Despite swimming being something I really enjoy. I usually just make it too hard to go. Today I just pulled on one of Sarah”s old lifeguard suits from way back when and went with her and her family. The pool is less than five minutes from the…
Fun at the Orange Grove
Our family is up here at the orange grove having a special weekend together since Luna starts kindergarten in a little over a week and Nico will soon start pre-school. That may not seem like a big deal – and in the bigger scheme of things it isn’t – but I know from experience with…
Ten Minute Quickwrite – How Much Can Be Said in So Little Time!
I am sitting with Riley. We are doing our ten-minute quick write. Let me see. What do I have to say today? Hmmm. Well, I just had a new student come before Riley to work on college essays. He’s the brother of one of my students who is now at UCLA. I get a lot…
A Walk Around My Block
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…
A Blast from the Past: 2011 When Visiting Daughter Sarah in Corpus Christi
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….
One of the Happiest Times of My Life
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…
Feeding the Homeless: Only A Band-Aid?
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…
20 Minutes a Day 