“Think globally, and act locally” is my favorite slogan to help people. Bad things happen in our world. The current opioid crisis epidemic is a current major tragedy in my region, and kids get hit hard. Continue reading “act locally” »
legacy
“Take care and watch yourselves closely so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life, make them known to your children and your children’s children.” Moses Continue reading “legacy” »
stay the course
Let’s focus on the positive. This is our special time to be spiritual beings having a human experience, and nobody gets away with ‘happy, happy, joy, joy’ all the time. We can be grateful we even get a piece of good times, considering the human race’s story. Continue reading “stay the course” »
process
Inferiority can be defined as pride in reverse. If I feel like I’m the worst person ever born, how is that any different than feeling like I’m the greatest? Both perspectives are not accurate, and both positions erode the soul. Continue reading “process” »
thinking about lyrics
Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle came out when my husband and I were in our early twenties and didn’t know each other. I love that song, especially the lyric, “Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ into the future.” Continue reading “thinking about lyrics” »
choose a caliber
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” »
reconciliation
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” »
sound therapy
‘Sound healing’ is a practical type of therapy with information available to us online. Years ago, I attended a workshop, and I believe it helped me heal some deeply painful emotions. Continue reading “sound therapy” »
living through fire
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.
elegy of a blackberry
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” »