Growing Up Step by Step January 26, 2012

Soon I will turn 47 years old–as in next Thursday.  What a celebration.  Against all odds my life span has made a run over more than a few decades.  The simple joy is my domain these days.  How grateful I feel to reflect on many close calls in behavior–ones that could have gone either way [...]

The Art of Focusing January 17, 2012

I wonder if we stereotype children for having a hyper attention span that annoys to the high heavens.  Since I have come down with a fever achey body runny nose the last few days, I tried for some extra sleep this morning while a friend watched Darien at home here.  Nothing doing because he tends [...]

Failure Club January 16, 2012

How else to succeed besides failure?  This last week helped me witness apparent failure and I am damn happy for that.  For the sake of emotional safety, I have often created false connections to people–or no connection at all.  Yet this changes daily as my capacity to live feeling open and vulnerable is now simply [...]

A Day in the Life January 3, 2012

Too tempted by a new pair of crystal clear Sony headphones, I cued up a CBS television show that I admire, A Gifted Man.  The storyline gently conflicts an ambitious Manhattan brain surgeon with his previous life while married to a doctor working at a low income clinic in rural Alaska.  One day his ex-wife [...]

New Year’s Day 2012 January 2, 2012

Truly strange how life cajoles us all to change.  What we will do to not change.  The resistance!  This last year has simply been a shift in perspective creating incremental emotional change over the last twelve months.  I thought I had changed, but when a woman I know on the periphery returned to live in [...]

He Did It November 28, 2011

One squeaky toy that lingers in the basket is a frog that shrills, “I did it.”  The first time Darien heard this pitch, he woke up the morning after parroting exactly those words.  This happened when he was around 11 months and now he is 13 months old.  Truth be told is that he did [...]

Deliciously Ordinary November 8, 2011

Turns out my life is pretty ordinary for which I am radically happy.  So little does it take to create that flapping sardine of joy in my heart.  True these fishes have a v-tail that makes them appear to flap around in the water.  I guess when you clear out layers and layers of bad [...]

Ch-ch-ch-changes November 6, 2011

Life takes those nexus points where change must happen.  I stand in that crossroad.  Might just be internal change, which would be enough.  Yet perhaps I will move from San Francisco and start a coffee roasting business in Costa Rica.  Or maybe teach English in Jakarta.  Or perhaps pick strawberries in Argentina.  I simply do [...]

Busted Open Heart November 1, 2011

A week ago my heart reached that nexus of need to break wide open.  Mind you, this meant I simply made a few honest phone calls then sat down to a stiff cup of camomile and mint tea–yes, shockingly my local panaderia sells a mixed tea.  My life has reached a plateau of ordinary that [...]

C is for Commitment September 11, 2011

Finally, we are on the other side of immediate needs for Darien: feeding every two hours, singing softly in the middle of the night, bathing with super care, and watching his every move.   He is scheduled for his one year physical in just six weeks.  We made it.  So far.  Yet those first six [...]