writing is worth it
November is National Novel Writing month. NANOWRIMO is a non-porfit inspirational site. If you go for the challenge, you enroll and keep track of your word count, with number 50K as a novel completion word count. Continue reading “choose a caliber” »
scene of mass execution of the Dakota 38
My son told me to watch the film Dakota 38 and I’d never heard about it. In case you haven’t heard of it either, the film documents the fulfillment of Dakota Sioux Native Jim Miller’s dream. Jim tried to deny his dream because of its power. Continue reading “reconciliation” »
nightmare on the horizon
Yes, the Coffey Park fire, known as the Tubbs Fire continues burning after a week, and is half-way contained. My brother-in–law and his wife survived the fire because a neighbor called, giving them ten minutes. Evacuating their neighborhood subdivision took over an hour, and another hour to get to a two-lane road headed west. There were so many cars and only one road. Trees were smashing around them, and blocking other exits. There was no emergency infrastructure. They spent the rest of the night in a parking lot miles away, glad to be alive.
“It’s purification,” he told me on the phone two days ago, the first time we talked. It’s all gone, and he’s well aware his life is forever changed. Starting over as a senior…..
I was impressed by his positive attitude, grateful to his neighbor for calling to tell him to evacuate. If he hadn’t called, it would have been too late to leave. Thank you for caring enough to save lives!
Having been evacuated before, I understand ‘get out,’ and leaving stuff, when it comes to life and death. No question, lives matter more. Fear mixes with smoke. There nothing to describe racing away from home with the possibility your home will never be there again. What’s in the unknown?
My husband and I didn’t lose everything in the Butte Fire two years ago. However, it doesn’t take long to forget how lucky we are to survive a horrific fire like that. A second fire in West Point occurred three days ago, burning 250 acres in the downtown area. Four homes were lost. CALFIRE notified with a ‘robocall,’ if you signed up for notification. Too bad for you if you didn’t sign up. It happened really fast. The firefighters won that time.
If the wind hadn’t changed direction, we’d be toast for sure. We were spared. So lucky, again. Deja Vu.
What can we do to help? A friend of mine and her friend took positive action, and started californiafirehelp.com. Artists and designers are donating items and 100% of the proceeds got to help California fire victims.
Rebuilding efforts will take years, so thousands of people are reconsidering their life priorities. Do they want to return to a neighborhood after fire’s toxic waste is removed? Cleanup’s a major job. Meanwhile changes won’t happen overnight. Fire is everlasting.
My home stands today, my brother in-laws does not. We will never know why. Random winds change so many lives. California still burns, and we learn to cope.
Captain Kangaro
Captain Kangaroo was on TV when I was in kindergarten, and I didn’t want to miss it. My mother warned that if I got to school late, her note would tell my teacher TV made me late. I didn’t care, and I was late.
a red blackberry is green
West Point is a small hamlet in the central Sierra mountain range. Scout Kit Carson was said to have named the place because it’s the most western portion of two forks of the Mokelumne river, the watershed for Contra Costa County in the east bay area. Continue reading “elegy of a blackberry” »
water is trustworthy
My friend retired years ago and we see each other at the athletic club. He runs in the pool while I swim laps. We talk about things from time to time as we do our workouts. Continue reading “more than teeth” »
we are stardust
“How are you today?”
Easy to ask, but hard to answer. It depends upon who’s asking, and how far we want to go with someone else. I’ve lived with extreme depression on a personal level and with my relatives. Self-medicating is one way to ease the pain. It’s not a great solution, but research shows most people turn to self-medicating first. Continue reading “Is it going?” »
everybody looked like Hitler in WWI
Personal boundaries seem to be rooted in perception. I see things from my point of view, which seems true and final. Like everybody else, I’m limited and get caught up thinking I know best about what’s going on. I tend to forget there are infinite ways to see the world, and nobody knows everything.
Continue reading “taking a chance on letting people know me” »
Come on People now…
My grandfather was a 9th generation American, and was in his eighties when he wrote a letter to the 11th generation, welcoming us to the family. Continue reading “Love Anniversary” »
confusing choices open and close doors
If my father lived, he would be ninety-seven years old at the end of April. I can’t imagine him as an old man, because he was forty-eight when he killed himself. In my opinion, alcohol played an enormous role in why he chose suicide, caught in a twofold trap of craving and obsession, wanting to stop, unable to live without it. Continue reading “the story of April” »