I don’t know my new neighbor well, but he has a small, fluffy grey dog named Lulu. Crossing paths with Roo the other day, he stopped me unexpectedly and asked if I was a writer. He’d read a recent article of mine online and was intrigued. Although I hadn’t realized we were digitally…
She appeared one morning a few weeks before Christmas. Bulbous, but near-missable and centered in mid-air at eye height. Her web, perhaps not the biggest I’ve encountered on my travels through jungly, remote spaces, but the biggest web I’ve seen here in Nicaragua. In truth, the biggest web I’ve ever discovered in an abode…
Mornings used to be slower. In the days before Roo. Even with Tino’s daily 4 am meows for breakfast before sunrise, (food is already in her bowl, she wants fresh breakfast); when I later awoke to my morning, it would unfold slowly. Roo has shaken out that easy-paced morning routine over the…
December and January proved to be a wild concoction of frivolity, recovery, and re-focus. Time routinely set aside to write crumbled away despite my best intentions or resolutions. The sticky aspect is that even though my routines sometimes get left behind, inspiration still pings at will. Ideas and plot lines that unfold into…
Years ago, on a random afternoon in Bali, I found myself traveling by motorbike to the Pyramids of Chi, twin pyramids rising from deep within the heart of the island jungle. Erected side by side, surrounded by lush palms and dirt roads, and beyond that surrounded by volcanoes and ocean, one pyramid stood tall…
Navigating my mornings of making coffee, journaling, and meditating around Roo’s morning potty run has become somewhat stressful these days. The success rate of getting it together in the morning to take her out before she pees on the floor is low. There are a few reasons for this undesirable time crunch I…
How can I teach my 3-legged Roo good behavior without shouting at her? She’s still a puppy, and learning every day, but I don’t want to be a shouty dog owner as I correct her for less-than-good behavior. This evening she lay in the sunset grass near the shore, happily chewing…
This morning was hijacked by a waking nest of sea turtles, sleepily finding their way up through packed, damp sand, blinking lidded eyes into the morning sun, the sway of the nearby ocean calling their ancient newborn souls to the waves. That was their morning. My morning was much different, but I’ll…
I held the wooden statue in my hands, the smooth contours and simple lines etched deeply to carve an enigmatic expression on its face: a straight line for a mouth and eyes wide and round. Arms, sage-like, perched on bent knees, its back arched slightly forward so that the statue seemed to lean in…
Just about every time I visit family, a few of us end up at the local veteran’s bar. Queuing up the karaoke, we’re intent on entertaining the retired patrons with our alternative version of Stevie Nicks, George Strait, Bob Dylan or any other familiar ditty that deserves a far more talented tribute. It’s…