Communion, consolation and church The church was packed. St. Patrick’s Church in Arroyo Grande had a Mass of Remembrance –Communion and Consolation-at six last evening for All Souls Day. I expected there to be very few people there, after all, it was time for Sunday night football but there was almost no room by the […]
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This is not a game Maybe because of the very few people at this morning’s Mass-not obligatory because it fell on a Saturday, I thought of a comment my husband made about this life we are living a few weeks ago, This is not a game. Surreptitiously, I glanced around the less than half filled
Halloween and All Saints Day: This is Not a Game Read More »
” So you’re a war dog.” I was talking to the beautifully marked German Shepherd standing next to a second brown and white, fairly large dog. Both were tethered to the RV. They were looking toward the owner of the pair of feet, the remainder of whose body was hidden by the red pickup truck
Once I realized that writing was exactly like other businesses my husband John and I had done together; some extremely successfully; others not so much, I accepted the fact that promoting this new novel will be no different. Therefore, I hired a publicist to help promote the events planned for the Texas trip. Wisely, the
The Interview: Lessons in Humility Read More »
I flunked Retirement In the flurry of publishing my first novel, I hired a publicist for a whirlwind ten days in Houston. I had eight speaking engagements lined up for my friends and family living in Texas. The expensive publicist isn’t an investment I would repeat. However, at her suggestion, I wrote some articles from
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Only Shadow and I, the mostly black and gold mellow-looking guy lying down on the floor next to the Doberman, witnessed Ally’s sudden death. It took less than ten seconds. After obsessively pondering everything that took place that night, as well as a few of the signs that had presented themselves for the previous few
Lessons In Handling Stress Read More »
St. Peter’s Catch They’d been out all night and caught nothing. In fact, when Jesus tells him to ‘put out your boat into deep water and lower your nets for a catch,’ St. Peter replies that they’ have worked hard all night and caught nothing.’ Why does he then go back out? Why the immediacy
A friend on the east coast recently asked for my perspective on immigration since I live in the west and I had to think about how to reply. I consider myself apolitical and have trouble with the labels of Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative and immigration seems to be a decidedly political issue. But
Immigration-Some Apolitical Thoughts Read More »
Firefighters and teamwork Few would consider trust between a leader and her team a matter of life or death. Recently, however, I was instructed in the critical importance of teamwork among firefighters by the Captain of the volunteer firemen at Lake Tahoe, not far from where I live in northern Nevada, . Out here in the west,
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Heraclitus or maybe it was Herodotus complained about the graffiti scribbled on the walls of the Coliseum or maybe it was the Parthenon. But it seems to be a rule: The older generation complains about the younger generation. I am old enough to have heard friends and colleagues expressing the same critical, negative opinions about
Kudos To The Younger Generation Read More »