Moonlight’s magic mist makes vacations disappear before our very eyes. Just one more day to enjoy Paradise . . . I’m going to sit here and breathe in the ocean for a while. I’ll be back.
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Kayaking to the “someone let out the” Secret Falls: Uluwehi Falls, Kauai (Write Every Day 29)
Yesterday, we took a kayaking+hiking trip out to the Secret Falls, which is a misnomer since everyone and his brother seems to know where the falls are. We had done a similar trip out to the falls many years ago and had fond memories of a canoe ride and hike. The kids were little and…
Postcards for Democracy: Want some?
Originally posted on Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook:
So you’re doing your bit, writing to your senator, sending out those postcards. Thank you! Here’s something for you. I turned one of my sketches from the Women’s March into a postcard. Remember this sketch? It’s now a postcard for you to use. And you can…
Merry Everything that’s Holy
After the long, hard slog of autumn, it’s the morning of Christmas Eve. I am a swirl of thoughts and emotions as I face my fears and count my blessings. My older daughter is home from college, having survived her first semester with many triumphs, and my younger one still has that Christmas sparkle in…
Reach Out to that Long Lost Friend
I have a challenge for you. This is especially for those of you (us) who are considered to be “middle aged” and who may have lost touch with a friend or two over the years. Find that friend and reach out. I did just that and I’ll tell you, it was just what my heart…
One Way to Start a Marriage: Battle Mountain Honeymoon
The negotiations went pretty quickly. I’d had total control of the wedding plans – girls in peach lace, cheesecake dessert, gerbera daisies for the tables – so it seemed fair that my dream of an exotic, tropical honeymoon should perhaps take a back seat to his dream of flying his 1974 single-engine Citabria…
Disneyland: Finding Magic and Wonder
With one of my daughters busy with summer internships and getting ready to go off to college in just a month, we weren’t able to plan any family vacation time this year — which means I’ve been on a mission to escape the stresses of the world in small summery chunks. This week it…
Hiking the Coyote Hills in the Bay Area Can Give You Hope
Sometimes, with all the heartache and ugly in the world, we need to escape – just to have the energy to come back to center, to that place of light. So yesterday, to get away from Facebook and the news which was minute-by-minute coverage of evil and ugly, we put on our hiking shoes and…
Flashback Friday: Summer in Greece, 2014
Two years ago, we packed for a month-long trip abroad, with two teenage girls. We spent one week in London, and three weeks in Greece, the homeland of all my ancestors. The trip was more inspiring than I could have hoped for and harder than I could have imagined. When we returned, I tried to…
In search of peace on Rt. 88
When you need to find respite — to find that place of calm — Rt. 88 through gold country California, might just be the road to take you there. On this two-lane country road, expansive, golden fields dotted with dark green oaks, wind through Jackson and then Pioneer. The road climbs up into forests of…
HOME: Life is a Blur Sometimes
I was just going through the pictures on my camera when this one of our dog, Toby, caught my eye. This is what happens when we’re home in the mountains — Toby becomes a puppy again, tearing after jackrabbits, deer, and squirrels. He becomes a blur, not unlike life when you’re raising two teens.
How to Promote a Growth Mindset, One Mistake After Another
The article in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/06/how-kids-get-failure-mindsets.html) on the latest research about what parents do when they operate from a “growth mindset” regarding their children’s learning – and what messages kids get about their abilities — struck a chord and a nerve with me. As a teacher, I expect all my kids to learn from…
Barbara Ganias Comstock 