My blog topics are a result of little frissons I get in my solar plexus.  Something funny happens and it laughs down there.  Or something thrills when I feel passionate about an idea.  Or I get triggered by something that upsets me so much I want to pretend it doesn’t. I got one of those  Read the Rest…

This week I finished a painting inspired by a photograph of a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, and Eugene, my first little soul-mate cat.  He’s the cat who liked raisins, broccoli and ear wax –I don’t need to get into how that came about—and who played my answering machine when he was bored. I wanted riots  Read the Rest…

No one was more surprised than I was to discover I had a taste for Scotch whiskey.  The child of an alcoholic, I grew up with a fear of alcohol and a dislike of being in situations where people were likely to be drunk. I, myself, have only been drunk once: the night before I  Read the Rest…

There was an exquisite moment in church this morning.  The service was laboring toward a moment of silence.  The service leader was intoning, “Something, something, something.  .  .  that holy quiet.  .  .” At the next in-breath, Lu upset her box of crayons all over the floor.  It sounded like a burst of hail beating  Read the Rest…

I grew up with a religious education that pretty much killed religion for me so of course, I ended up being a church musician.  I fought against it and actually got fired from a church job once because I didn’t have the outward behavior they expected of staff.  One of the many complaints against me  Read the Rest…

My friend Jenni, a student who single-handedly improved my sight-reading abilities by 75% by showing up with new music every week, recently accomplished something admirable: She went without words for a week.  Part of an Artist’s Way class, she called it her Reading Deprivation week.  She went without books, television and computer, explaining in part  Read the Rest…

I was browsing at the library when I heard a distinctive voice I hadn’t heard in 35 years.  It sounded exactly like someone I had known at college.  I followed the sound and sure enough it was Pat.  Then I ducked my head.  I didn’t have a thing against her.  I had liked her well  Read the Rest…

  When I was at Whitman College in Walla Walla (not Spokane, that’s Whitworth) I was part of a recurring act called the Temperance Union.  Four of us donned the frumpiest outfits we could put together and performed “Away with Rum” to whoever would listen: We’re coming, we’re coming, our brave little band, On the  Read the Rest…

I’ve been trying for five days to write something about the shooting of the Arizona congresswoman on Saturday.  I gather from I’ve been hearing and reading that I am not the only person who put their face in their hands and sobbed when they heard the news.  Then I braced myself for the onslaught of  Read the Rest…

Remember back before Christmas when some of us were counting the days and longing for The Light like medieval villagers?  Then there was the onslaught of Christmas and New Year.  By now we are well on our way towards it being light earlier in the morning until Congress robs us of even that when in  Read the Rest…