I had landed in Paris after an overnight flight, found my hotel room in the city center, and was now ready to begin my adventure. I had been planning this trip for years, and now the events were finally unfolding.  Looking back, it may have been a bit of a midlife crisis. I was…

Bright red, soft, and velvety … no, I’m not describing a Valentine’s Day decoration, but a red velvet mite. Built like eight-legged, scarlet Beanie Babies, red velvet mites are hard to miss, even though most of them are no bigger than an eighth of an inch long. They are arachnids in the family Tombidiidae, so…

Winter has arrived. In fits and starts as the pattern is now. It came in an all-day snowstorm, covering every surface in deep, furry pillows of white. All wildlife went silent, hidden and still. They will return when the storm passes. Hungry. Cold constricts and heat expands. Sick with Covid and the unhelpful gremlins Gripe,…

Birds, They flutter around, Their tiny little wings beating so fast, You can barely see them, They are just a blur flying past you, Then they fly up to the nearest tree, And they sing. They sing their happy little songs of love and joy, Maybe if you sit there watching them, One curious little…

Some words, once spoken, can’t be taken back. However, words these days seem to mean whatever people want them to mean. Don’t like a word? Then change the meaning of it. Don’t like its definition? Then take it out of context and manipulate it. Doesn’t fit with feelings? Then demand that others affirm it, even…

I love a good party. And by good party, I mean one where everyone is on the dance floor, free of their inhibitions and simply loving life. The ones where your vision starts to blur and all that surrounds you is the sound of music and the feel of the dance floor beneath your feet.…

For the first 10 years of my marriage, my mother-in-law gave me pajama pants for Christmas. She was a self-avowed horrible gift-giver and upon gracing me with the sleepwear, would announce, “Yeah, it’s another pair of pajamas. Just switch them out and keep quiet.” The pajama pants were generally good quality, usually flannel, with some…

You know Orion always comes up sideways. Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains, And rising on his  hands, he looks in on me… So wrote Robert Frost in his poem “The Star-splitter.” The aesthetic wonder of this easy-to-find constellation and its twinkling starlight have captured the imagination of countless stargazers. But the…

I haven’t been in touch with Bear Spirit for a while. I thought I’d let him hibernate in peace and quiet. But then I recalled I hadn’t shared all my interaction with the coyote who appeared in person and in spirit right before the snow fell. I entered my Radiant Heavenly Heat Sauna and began…

Ice shimmers like glass, Reflecting the beautiful night sky, The moon and stars on the ice, Sparkling in the light, Almost like a mirror, So very pretty, Brightly glistening, As if had been polished, Polished so well it has a faint glow, So amazing the things earth can create, Little decorations that make our planet…

January ended very similarly to how it began. Challenges or obstructions to relationships or relating, or even defining your desires and goals for the New Year may have weighed heavy. In order to have one thing, it often means having to say “No” to something else.  To take one side of an issue can appear…

My yard is full of Eastern white pine trees, and every three years or so, it is full of pine cones. This is one of those years. Pine cones have fallen all over the yard, the sidewalk, the driveway. The neighborhood wildlife seem pleased by this bounty. A resident gray squirrel has made a fallen…

  When I was 5 my dad taught me to ski on a tiny slope in northern New Jersey. I remember the first time I grabbed a rope tow. I grasped it tightly with mittened hands and catapulted forward above the ground. The snow was soft and it didn’t hurt in spite of doing a…

Storms, The wind whistles, The trees sway, The snow flutters down. The air is cold, The wind bites your nose. Icicles sparkle in the sun, The world glitters, As the storm rages on. There are many types of storms, Whether it’s rain, Wind or sea. Storms are strong and powerful, Just you see. The world…

Well, it happened. Pluto entered Aquarius over the weekend. Apart from tying up a few loose ends in Capricorn later this year, Pluto — the Great Revealer, will spend the next 20 years reshaping our collective and personal lives. If you’ve found yourself recently deeply questioning the shifting sands of time, then you’re likely on…