Sharing A Gift

Sometimes I come upon something special that I would like to share with the people I care about. This week my newsletter is a poem, written by one of my favorite poets, which captures so much of what I feel as I journey through my life: day by day, month by month, year by year.…

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The Siege Of The Wine Country

Here in Maryland, in the backyard of my new home, the leaves are just beginning to fire up with color. Back in California, in the yard of the home I’ve left behind and haven’t sold yet, a thick layer of smoke obscures the view of the mountains from my living room windows. In the mornings,…

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Spark A Challenge

This past October, I received some news that I was reluctant to write about here. The novel I had been working on, and believed I’d finished, was judged by my literary agent to need more work before she took the book out to market. Why did I choose not to share this disappointment–one that was…

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Waking Up To Suicide

Did you know that September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month? This recognition of suicide in our society is now highlighted every year at this time. Many federal departments, national foundations, and small support groups are attempting to increase public awareness about our country’s plague of self-inflicted death–its precursors, warning signs, and possible interventions. This…

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Riding Over The Potholes

Last week in our backyard, Mac inhaled a foxtail and we spent a rocky day at the vet. For those of you who don’t know what a foxtail looks like, it is the very spiky tip of a weed–one that will work its way upward inside its host if sniffed or stepped on or should…

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Guilty Pleasures

So, it’s Thursday at 5:00 in the morning and I’m speeding along at eighty miles an hour, in the pitch black, to a burg called Vallejo, which is about an hour and a half from my house. I’m keeping watch in my rear view mirror for “CHIPies,” (California Highway Patrol), who will pull me over…

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Dodging Curveballs

Sometimes life sends us curveballs. Just when we are least expecting it, a new situation arises, be it good or bad, and we are left scrambling. Not so long ago, I was talking with a friend whose older sister had died suddenly quite some time ago, and who was having difficulty coming to terms with…

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FRIENDS ARE THE ANCHOR IN HALF MOON BAY

In 1989, my husband and I moved from the New York suburbs to those in the Bay Area south of San Francisco. For me, thirty-six years of “home” had been on the East Coast–but the lure of a new and lucrative job beckoned him. He was ambitious. I was reluctant. Where would you like to…

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A MOTHER’S PILGRIMAGE

In August of this year, my younger son is getting married. For this momentous event, the entire family will travel to Israel, a destination known by many as “The Holy Land.” This appellation is appropriate for every one of us, even though we come from different backgrounds and religions, because the union between my son…

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