I never met my grandfather, but my mother’s description of him has brought him to life for me. He was a small man, not quite 5’8”, and very slim. He wore round spectacles and had bright eyes that shone when he saw his only daughter, Helen Marie. He called my mother his “little gurl,” since…
Sharing Writing + Connection = Happiness
Sometimes a person will ask me why I share my writing. “Isn’t it better, more pure, to write just for oneself and keep it tucked away?” My response is always the same, I share my writing because I want to create a link with other people. I believe in the healing power of connection through…
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
A few years back, I had a student who needed to write an essay on Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, so I had the pleasure of reading it for the first time. This highly-acclaimed novel was published in 1937 and from the very first lines, I was already in love. Here they…
Prompt: Have You Ever Experienced Prejudice?
When I was at the University of Utah, I was in a special program called Free Curriculum for my junior and senior years. This program had only 26 students and was offered through the psychology department. The program was experimental and was based on the idea that by allowing students the opportunity to create their…
Tasty Pancake Mix Cookies
Yesterday, I visited daughter Sarah and her family in South Pasadena. My granddaughter Lyla and I decided to make cookies. Unfortunately, Sarah was out of flour so we used pancake mix instead. We made a batch of blueberry cookies and also a batch with chocolate chips. The cookies turned out remarkably well. Lyla and I…
If This Is the Beginning, Where From Here?
Dear Friends, I have had two conversations with family members who work at universities who say that their work worlds has been completely disrupted due to the policies that Trump recently put into place. Funds have been cut, professors let go, students wondering how they can get the classes they need to graduate on time,…
Today at the Ojai Meadow Preserve
This was my first time to this lovely nature preserve. There were paths, a pond, lots of birds, friendly people, and one heck of a view of the Topa Topa Mountains. Here are a few photographs:
The Things We Carry: My Friend Walter’s Rosary
I have been carrying a wooden rosary around for several months now. It’s in my computer bag, and I haven’t used it once—so far—to say the rosary. It was one of the objects gathered from the apartment of the late Deacon Walter Johnson, who, in his mid-80s, died unexpectedly last year. Everyone who knew him…
Flash Fiction: The Fire’s Aftermath
Daisy picked up a handful of black soot from the ground and smeared it on the only remaining wall of her home, which had been beautiful and whole just a week before and had been the place where she had felt safe and secure. Wrong, she wrote in big, bold letters, and then she walked…
A Moment with Rowan Williams
If you had ever told me that I would have the opportunity to spend several hours in the company of the Most Revd Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, and former Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, I would have responded with an emphatic, “Impossible!” However, I can now see that impossible is not a word…
20 Minutes a Day 