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 […]
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Tag: adventure
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. […]
I Was Tossed Around Like A Rag Doll; My A...
27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part II One moment, sunny sweet skies — the next, the Mother Hulk of a demon storm with hideous, grotesque grey-green and black clouds pelting us square on with sheets of ice-cold rain. We were hard-put to keep our footing, being tossed around by gigantic heaving swells. I […]
Almost Raped 400 Miles from Land; How One...
27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part I I struggled to sit up, holding my head on with both hands. I couldn’t seem to stand, so I slid off the bunk, and inch by inch slowly creeped on my hands and knees over to the box…. It was a hot mid-August, 1984, just a […]
My Mind Starts Eating Before I Do
I’ll be sitting here writing, or doing some other task, and in the back of my head I’m busy preparing the juicy makings of a delicious tomato salad, or a nice spicy wrap around some cheese and micro-greens, or some yummy curried lentil soup… Or making art of some kind…. If I don’t get up […]
You’re Always Late! You’re So Annoying!
It was Sara’s 40th birthday party. I had barely walked through the door when she pounced on me, screaming. Right in my face. Behind her, the casual low-level murmur of party-din dissolved into a ragged silence. Every head swiveled toward us, mouths agape with surprise. I was so taken aback I almost turned around and […]
Unity-ness. Loch Ness. Lock-ness. Open-ne...
From a Dream, Narrated by The Voice of Dreaming: Word play. Philosophy in Silli-ness. The Doctrine of Jest. Farcicality of Foolery… Starting here and ending where? Unity
Last Does Not Mean Loser
(Published in Small Craft Advisor Magazine) We were in the last part of the first pack. The finish line seemed impossibly far away. It was right then that I made the most colossal mistake. I had been so proud! I’d been invited to be one of two kids to represent our local sailing club as […]
Why I Didn’t Follow You On Medium.com
And … a huge thank you to all the folks who have steadily supported me and liked, commented on and followed my stories. I appreciate you so much! 500! Never in my wildest dreams a year ago would I have imagined I’d be writing over 100 stories in ten short months, and be honored by […]
My Queendom for A Bag of Cookies
Yesterday, I was graced by the help of a young man who had no clue how much his assistance meant to me. Due to a funky situation with my back, I don’t walk — I hobble. And it hurts. All day, every day. So when I had to actually get a ride and go to […]
GIVE IT UP!
(Published in Small Craft Advisor Magazine) Sailing is more than ‘just a skill.’ It’s a life-and-death adventure every time you go out, and if you have even one smidgen of smarts in your head, you know you have to be prepared every time you go out onto the water. Since my parents took me sailing […]
TULE MAMA
A week camping near a lake, lava tubes, a mountain of chunks of beautiful black obsidian and volcanic tufa resulted in this carving… I never liked walking, so any time friends asked me to go hiking, I’d say no. But when my friend Bee, who lived all the way across the world from me, said […]
My Garden, My Angels
I kind of felt bashful, and laughed as I opened my eyes. I realized right away that I was expecting some kind of white-robed, human-shaped being to come into my view. Pretty silly of me – I know that angels take many shapes. It was slightly overcast that morning, the light mellow, muted. As I […]
Ten of the Strangest Fears You Ever Heard...
Tonight, when I was reading about fears, I saw this word: Kakorrhaphiophobia, so I decided to play google search. I love googling weird things. I’ll type two unrelated words in the search bar and hit go, just to see what comes up. Much to my surprise and delight, not only did the definition of Kakorrhaphiophobia […]
The Spirit Door
Suddenly, the plastic sheet in my hands quivered a little, and there! There it was! The Door! In a dream, I was with a man who was kind of Tibetan looking, but not. He was showing me a piece of sheet plastic — about a foot square, clear, shiny. He was shifting it around in […]
SOME DAYS JUST SUCK.
You know me – I’m the one who wishes she could heal the world of all pains and wrongs, help people feel good, see the gold in every mud puddle – blahhh blahhh blahhh – Yeah. Well, not so much today. I’m the one in the puddle today, and it seems nine miles deep. And […]
What Happens to You When You Watch Scary ...
Sometimes I do things that drain my energy. I forget to stop, and end up an emotional mess. Have you ever done that? A video I watched a couple of days ago that a friend sent me was one of those really well-done, 2-hour videos outlining how ‘they’ do this bad thing and ‘they’ do […]
WHAT TO DO with OUR ‘DARK SIDE’?
“…We all have darkness and light in us, but we also have the ability to choose love over hatred….” . Yes! In a video I watched a few days ago, Jordan Peterson was saying that unless you face and accept your dark side, you will just be a weak person. I agree. It’s not that […]
My Thoughts of Peace Fly Out Far Beyond M...
Because love is a verb. And it acts a million times more powerfully than our puny little minds can imagine. At 13, my dentist decided that deflowering me right in the open, right on the dentist chair, would be a cool thing to do. I was so shocked, so surprised, so absolutely flummoxed that I […]
Hope Is A Beggar. Or Is She?
I once knew a fantastically popular, immensely powerful man. Once his swooning fans had left for the night, he would retreat to his den. He’d try to bend his skeletal frame around the huge, impossibly soft pillows on his couch, and he’d sit there, scowling and frowning, gazing blindly out into the night. He’d hear […]
CREATION
In a dream, I ushered men out of a light-filled chute and onto the ground at the bottom. I could hear them flopping and bouncing and clattering down the chute, some cussing loudly, some weeping and wailing, terrified; others silent. All came out with a shout of pleased and excited surprise that they were still alive […]