COVID-19 has swept into our lives in devastating ways. Across the country, it single-handedly has brought so much of life as we know it to a stand-still. If you live in the SF Bay Area, you’re now under a “shelter-in-place” directive. Everything closed. Everyone home. We’re all washing our hands and hording toilet paper. Stress…
Tag: writing
After the Smoke Clears: November Days of Gratitude
The smoke is still pretty thick ’round here, although the rains have come. We’re used to the Bay Area having fog cascade over the hills like some magical potion pouring out of a steaming mug, but this daily blanket of smoke has not been the same. Our eyes have watered; we’ve coughed; our voices have…
Just a Blog Away: Fishermen and Poets
There is so much creativity and wonder out there in the blogging world and I need to grab more of it in 2018. That’s one of my goals for the new year. I don’t make resolutions because resolutions are notoriously bad at holding up over time. Goals, though, are doable. Specific. They can be tracked…
November Days of Gratitude: A blogging commitment
I just noticed that my little blog has 100 followers. 100! I know . . . some of you are thinking, seriously? She’s excited about 100 followers? I remember when I taught first grade we would count the days until the 100th day of school. It was a big deal for a big number. 100…
A Photo a Day: What good is a challenge if it doesn’t challenge you?
I almost missed it. But if you’re on the West Coast, today is still: DAY #10 I’ve been so upset and heartbroken since the news out of Nevada hit yesterday morning that I couldn’t get my brain wrapped around taking any pictures. I kept wondering what images ground us, what do we do that centers…
A Photo a Day: A Tree Mystery
Day #9 We have a large tree outside that, every day for the past month, looks like it has been through a terrible storm — branches and leaves litter our driveway and fall on our cars. Thing is, we’ve had no storms — or wind, for that matter. Meanwhile, our driveway and our cars are…
Looking for Time in all the wrong places: thoughts on my blogging life.
Tuesday 5:30 AM: I feel like a country western song — you know, the one about not finding what you’re looking for — or the one about losing what you had? I don’t even know the right words for the picking of guitar strings, but I can hear the sound in my ears as I…
The curious nature of the moon and my blog: an explanation, a question, and some gratitude.
THE MOON: I love that the moon has so many phases — and that when you look up at it, depending on the sky and the light, you’ll see something new. There is magic in it — in the nooks and crannies, the craters and lakes. So last night, I grabbed that new Panasonic point-n-shoot…
Summer brain and the start of a new school year
I’m such a cliche. After having spent the whole week thinking today was my wedding anniversary, I actually looked at the calendar. It’s tomorrow. It’s not that I didn’t know the date we got married; it’s that I didn’t know what today’s date was. I’m blaming it on summer brain. Summer brain is the heavy…
The gifts of 5:00 AM and coffee-cup meditations.
My husband jokes about “burning daylight” if you wake up too late. I’m less concerned about that than I am about seeing the start of day. There is something about the quiet beginnings of morning, the way the birds awaken and the sky lightens, that comfort me. It’s a grounding I need, and a space…
What might happen if you had an unshakable faith in the possible?
What might it look like if you had an unshakable faith in the possible? I don’t think that’s as much about “hope” as it is being able to visualize clearly what could happen if . . . We know that research supports this theory of visualization as practice. When we create pictures in our mind’s…
Stitch together the family history; “Handle with Care” those moments frozen in time
A couple of the things I treasure most are two manila envelopes filled with old photographs. When I was growing up, there were stacks and stacks of old photographs in the attic and the basement; more stacks could be found stored in the dining room buffet or in the television cabinet. Having moved cross-country, I…
Barbara Ganias Comstock 