What is love, the love blind one asked everyone. Love is lowering the shields Taking off the chains Opening the windows of your lonely castle Love isn’t a thing Like a person or a new fur coat It isn’t in anything Like your children or your mother or your lover …

Imagine 8 billion people giving thanks. Not thankful because of Pilgrims or victory in war. Just thankful for being alive. Sunrise. The sounds of children playing. A home. Loved ones. Life itself. Let’s not refuse gratitude because of all that is going awry, or did in the past. We are…

On the eve of the USA election, I’m reviving this poem from july 4 2021, born of my love/hate relationship with the land of my birth: Oh beautiful For specious lies For nary grains of truth Where purple splits to red and blue And never meets the twain America, America …

Every few weeks I’ll draft a letter to the editor of our island county newspaper. There’s a rhythm to each one. A local angle, and then a reflection that isn’t one-sideism or both-sideism but common sense-ism. No digs. Well, a few pokes but nothing intended to break skin. I keep…

There is no solving this, this world of so many scattered pieces, incomplete sentences, and missing information. On the ferry that connects Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula some tables have puzzles in process. They are a collective project. On each crossing, a passenger may pause, fit in one more…

Yom Kippur. The sealing of our fate for the year. The humbling of our willful agendas and surrendering to the will of YHWH, or reality. The coming together in community to affirm that, yes, we’ve all pretty much done the full measure hateful stuff to one another if only in…

What’s the female version of “grumpy old man”? I’m turning 76 and, whatever it is, I think I’m getting there. Is it “vain old woman”? “Look at my ankles (after 12 hours of elevation to deflate the souffle that puffs up out of my shoes), thin as the day I…

I know @realdonaldtrump. Not personally but many many years ago I lived with a bully-man. He was a smart, charismatic, focused and a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy. Before I met him people would have said I was intelligent, attractive and creative. After some years with him, I was cautious, insecure…

Hope for the future? Big question. If the future looks bleak, do I change or do I just “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die”? If change is possible, what I should do with my limited waking hours (Paul Hawken’s list is a good starting point). Herein I…