Category Archives: Uncategorized

Turquoise

Back in the pool shaped likea champagne cork at the beginning of a new yearin a place that’s usually summer-like in winter, though this year cooland rainy, the old souse of a desert imbibing the liquid candy, doingits best to … Continue reading

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Pledge

(in memory of Captain Robert J. Schweitzer, U.S. Navy pilot, who served from 1950–1974) I did something today I haven’t done in years:I stood, as requested by a speaker at an event,and recited the pledge of allegiance (trying to remember … Continue reading

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Back at the Ocotillo Lodge

(Palm Springs, California) Descending the steps into the big hot poolat the mid-mod condo in the winter-chilly desert, I remember the baptism of these healing waterstwo years ago, entering fevered and shivering, only to have all symptoms of the Big … Continue reading

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The 99, rain or shine

(driving south on Highway 99, New Year’s Day 2026) I’m at the wheel, he’s riding shotgun,shooting through the windshieldat the unfolding skyshow— from swift-moving gray cloudsraining tiny pearl-sized dropswith tails wiggling up the glass like overeager tadpoles,then, swithin a couple … Continue reading

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Another beginning

Our very life here depends directly on continuous acts of beginning.—John O’Donohue It’s an invitation, an opening,like so many that have been offered,a portal into, yes, the uncharted, but when has there ever been a beginningthat did not require a … Continue reading

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Our fair city

Glittering under the finalsparse rays of a winter day near the end of a year,rising above it all helps change our perspective on the placewe think of as home, as the Nisenan have donefor thousands of years, basking in golden … Continue reading

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Subject lines in my in-box approaching the end of this weird-ass year

Celebrating 2025 and looking to 20266 things you should never wear on a flightDon’t keep it bottled up insidePrenups are having a momentWhy millennials love prenupsLet it rain downLearn how to prune a rose bush in under 3 minutesPrinciplesA bestseller … Continue reading

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No soliciting

I completely understand.I don’t want people knocking on my doortrying to sell me something either. But listen, what I have for youis something that you can’t pay for,even if you wanted to. I have for you a poem of the … Continue reading

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Reshape the day

When you paused for a poemit could reshape the dayyou had just been living. —Naomi Shihab Nyefrom “Every day as a wide field, every page” ••• As you move about the place you call home,lines come to you unbidden,snippets of … Continue reading

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Stretching

The old muscles complain, we all say,but they, as it happens, are amongthe many things that need stretching, especially at the end of a year thathas required our hearts to resistthe urge to contract as we witness such hard-heartedness among … Continue reading

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