I used to love to fish. Down at the dock, I’d dangle my feet off the end, feeling the outright peace being saturated with sun and calm and things-are-just-right brings. Sometimes I’d row a skiff out, and float around in the shadows under the piers, throwing in my line to see what I could catch. […]
Bully
David came up behind me, grabbed my pail of fish, and before I could stop him, dumped it right on top of my head. He and his buddies squealed with laughter and ran off down the dock. The fishes slid down my back, into my shirt, down onto my lap. I was soaked, head to […]
Fishies and Birdies and Manta Buddies
I seem to be on a fishies kick. I was thinking maybe these designs would be cool for aloha shirts – waddya think? I made lots of other color variations, plus repeat designs – sometimes I think I’m just a maniac for art and design!
Fishies and Buddies at the Bottom of the ...
I always think of my underwater scenes as reflective of our human life above the water. . How, at the very same time, life is so full of kindness and compassion, even as it is fraught with rampant killing and imminent danger, with safe and neutral territories and scary streets you’d avoid if you could. […]
Feed the Lot (A Dream that I wish was rea...
In a dream, I’m the manager of a catering company. We get an order to cater The Cattleman’s Association Annual Stockman Gathering. 800 people. I’m thinking, wow, 800 people! That’s a lot of people — I didn’t even know there was a group called that, much less that there were so many of them! So […]
Kitties Love Us, but Would Never Admit It
I love looking out at the squirrels who hop around on my neighbor, Joy’s roof, along with the jays and other birdies. . . Her cat chases them endlessly, but never catches a thing. I think he must be de-clawed, poor thing. . There’s a hummingbird feeder out there, too – it’s always jam-packed with […]
Kitties Don’t Give Up!
I used to watch my cat sit still for hours watching the birdies – he never, ever gave up. It made me wonder why I often gave up easily. . So I stopped doing that. Now I’m like a ravenous tiger with a fresh steak – get away! Mine! I’m going to get this done! […]
You Know I Love Cats . . .
A long, long time ago, I had a black cat named Oedipuss. . He used to strut into the room where we were sitting, come stand by our feet, look around, and then oh-so-casually reach up and swat the dangling foot of the one with crossed legs. He’d then shrug like he’d done his dirty […]
“Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”
Have you ever wondered where an artist gets ideas from? I’m asked all the time where my designs, illustrations, paintings and sculpture come from. Well, here’s your answer! The simple answer would be, The Dream World. The more complex answer would be: dreams, flashes of insights, phrases I hear in conversation or on the radio […]
I Put A Spell On You
Do you see the gals weaving their curly wishes into reality, and the kitties and birdies and mice supporting them? This is one of my latest pattern design pieces for fabric and home decor. This, and others in various colors, are now added to my Spoonflower shop, so you can get them on fabric, wrapping […]
I Lost My Temper, and Lost Everything
Freya. Little Freya. Five feet nothing, thin as a rail. Powerhouse. Strides in from the outside deck, leaving the door wide open to the frigid, whirling snow and cutting wind. Which wasted no time rushing in and wrapping itself around me, doing its best to freeze my tropical butt off. I’d just gotten home, settling […]
Comments, Connectedness, and Kindness
I wonder why people feel so free to be outright a-holes, mean sons of bunches, and screaming ranting judgmental karens out to intentionally destroy some innocent person’s reality. I’m thinking about the comments we all make online — on Medium, Substack and other article sites, social media — from Facebook to X to instagram and […]
How Peace Bringer Brought Spring Back
Isn’t it just like life! You have to brave going through the shit in order to finally get to the gold – which has so much more value, the more trouble it was to get it. TRIGGERS: If you are sensitive to mentions of violence or harm, you may not be brave enough to read […]
I Had A Tantrum Yesterday, and It Wasn’t
Finding out I had zero choice set me on fire. I can usually put up with automated customer service, whether on the phone, or online chat. But this time? Oh my. We bought a new mattress/box-spring set from a company we found online. It was delivered, unpacked and set up; the delivery guys left; I […]
Are You A Writer or Author?
Do you know where to publish your articles and stories? I’ve added a rich list of various places to publish at the end of this note — you’ll want to bookmark and save this — lots of good info. Maybe you already know about websites where you can publish your articles and stories. I didn’t […]
SILLY KITTY
Kitty comes from the planet Amberocity. They have the most amazing spiral deserts that intersect with ferocious thick carnivorish jungles. My neighbor’s cat, Kitty, is from that planet. She came here because she was scared of the jungle. And she likes chocolate ice cream, which they don’t have on her planet. She loves to run […]
Meet DAWG.
I bet you don’t know that there are dog-aliens. They look and act like our dogs, but you can tell at night, because their eyes gleam green when the moon is full. Dawg is a silly, fun-loving, very tall, very fast-running critter who came from the planet Outlandia, which is covered with very high mountains […]
Teachers: Make Money Selling Your Lessons
Here’s something that surprised me recently – did you know you can sell your lesson plans? You can! And people pay dearly for them! You can also sell your worksheets, class exercises, reading guides, and other helpful educational resources! ARE YOU A TEACHER/INSTRUCTOR/PROFESSOR? Why teach one group of kids in school, when you can teach […]
Caught by A Monster Outgoing Tide
(Published in Small Craft Advisor Magazine) My friend Jana and I decided to take the little blue skiff out — we’d row across the harbor to the tiny crescent-shaped beach right under the old Tiffany mansion, and have a lazy picnic. But we never got there. We were bored. It was a hot July noon […]
What’s Your Destiny? Mine Is Scary.
I’m assuming that I’m going to live to be 100. So I’ve been thinking about what I want to see happen in my life in my last 22 years. On the one hand, most of me just wants to disappear to a small hideout on the beach somewhere. I want to putter in a thriving […]
Why Should I Bother Making Art in Times o...
I got a call from an artist friend who was all upset about the way the world seems to be inside out and utterly falling apart. She said, “When I look at how the world has gotten, I think why bother making art anymore? People say they are either too worried about rent to buy […]
Excruciating Pain and Horror to Unending,...
The emergency room intake attendant side-eyed me in disbelief from under frowning grizzled brows. Holding my pulse with one hand, with the other he was hurriedly filling in my chart with cryptic slashes and numbers. He looked back down at it on his lap, and glanced at me again. Not really seeing me. “How is […]
My Dad Thought It Was Sooo Funny When He ...
“I’m sorry, honey,” he said, looking back up at me, actual tears in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.” My dad used to burst into my bedroom, at dawn:30, throwing the door back with a thunderous bang. He’d roughly yank all the covers completely off me and my bed, tossing it all aside, and cheerily spout, […]
Get Your Audience Settled, whether Live o...
You’re about to lead a workshop or presentation. You want to begin, but your audience comes into the space full of energy, busy-busy chatting, walking around, chaotic. This is for you. What I’m about to show you works for in-person, online, and zoom events. The first thing I do is bang on my podium. Or […]
Happy, Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee!
Yesterday was my birthday! I never thought of myself as a writer . . . I woke up to grey skies and freezing cold air — I’d forgotten to close my window to only an inch like I usually do. It was wide open, and all the cold night air was hurricaning around in my […]
Erecting Energetic Safety Zones
‘They’ say “we are all energy, frequencies…” So … I’m wondering … what if we could actually make use of that idea? We are all eating great quantities of chemicals, unbalanced or poisoned nutrients, plastic particles, and industrial byproducts that our bodies cannot use, metabolize or eliminate. We just can’t actually see it all, or […]
That Damn Cat!
How my mother was attacked by an enormous rasty-looking tabby cat…. (You can watch/listen to this story in a video at the bottom of this page!) My family used to live in a wonderful old 1880s farmhouse. Upstairs, my folks’ bedroom had a dutch door that opened onto a wide, sunny deck. My mother liked […]
Signals that There’s Something Going on U
Speaking with my business coach about a plan we were creating for my own coaching, I started to get really sleepy. If I didn’t lie down right now, I’d simply collapse on the floor in a puddle… (Watch/listen to me reading this story to you here!) I had been blazing wide awake the moment before, […]
God Rays Under the Water
27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part IV Each day, just as evening began to shade the sky, an enormous, rippling line across the horizon in front of us appeared, darkly ominous, growing bigger and bigger. The first time I saw it I about wet my pants! In no time at all, it was […]
Sailing with Giants
27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part III As we began to plod our way through the Doldrums, I started having a recurring dream when I settled down in my bunk to sleep after my night watch was over. My habit was to lie in my bunk fully dressed, because I didn’t trust James. […]