The Pool at Piula Photo by Rahul Pandit on Pexels.com In a previous post, “Finding Support in a Lonely Endeavor,” I wrote about submitting two stories to a journal at the local college. I’d recently moved to a new town, and I thought that would be a good way to meet...
Scammed in Suva
Suva, photo thanks to Maksym Kozlenko on wikimedia commons It was 1992. A more innocent time. Especially if you lived in a peaceful, South Pacific island country like Vanuatu. The capital, Port Vila, had only one small weekly newspaper. And when I say small, I mean...
Beauty Everywhere … Noticing It
Long ago, when we lived in the Philippines, I was considering writing children’s books. So I sent away for a correspondence course. The books arrived, and I got busy working on my lessons while I waited to drive my youngest daughter home from kindergarten. I finished...
Finding Support in a Lonely Endeavor
Writing requires a lot of alone time. A quiet room, a desk or table, pen and paper, laptop or desktop, some books for research. And most of all, the writer’s own ideas. Some writers can handle all that solitude and still keep producing. Most of us, though, find ways...
Looking for Color on a Gray Winter’s Day
February first was a good day for a walk: no rain and temperature in the mid-forties. A quiet, peaceful day. You had to admire the subtle variations in the wintry colors. The soft gray clouds floating over the coarse gray sand. The lacy brown branches and the heavy...
Eleven Animals and a Dragon. Why a Dragon?
Photo by Thắng-Nhật Trần on Pexels.com Year of the Dragon It’s still the Year of the Rabbit, a real animal. But come February 10, 2024, we will be in the Year of the Dragon. Have you ever wondered how a mythical creature got into the Chinese zodiac’s list of twelve...
Why Do We Celebrate the New Year with Resolutions?
Why, I wonder, do we say goodbye to the old year with alcohol and singing an old Scottish song? And why do we feel obliged to make resolutions? I mean, why aren’t we like the Chinese? They celebrate the Lunar New Year with dancing dragons, red envelopes stuffed with...
Books in the Basement
A few days ago, I drove Daughter #3, Dear Son-in-Law, and Beloved Grandson to the airport after their Christmas-New Year visit here on the West Coast. Daughter #3 is known to be neat and hardworking, so naturally she stripped the beds and started the washer and dryer...
