Election day…

What could I possibly write today that wouldn’t be outdated by tomorrow? It’s a small world?  Six or less degrees of separation? Ok, here’s one.  A woman named Suzanne Barakat works at San Francisco General. She’s a doctor, doing her family practice residency.  I worked at SF General for 18 years, retiring in 2003 when … Continue reading Election day…

Tom Hayden and me.

My own political awakening  began early and started manifesting in high school.  I had little understanding of how the system worked but my parents were Democrats and I had a natural affinity for liberal politics.  After all, by the time I was eleven, I’d already experienced being part of several target groups — children, girl … Continue reading Tom Hayden and me.

Papancea

I have a new word for you.  Well, not new to all of you. It’s a very popular word in buddhism, probably only after the words dharma and dukkha. (Dukkha being suffering, so you know that’s popular). Partly we love papancea because it sounds so funny –  pah-pahn-scha (accent on the second syllable and the whole … Continue reading Papancea

Re-thinking wedding days…or… to quote Bob Dylan – “Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.”

Maybe it was because I never got married. Hmmm?  That’s not exactly true.  I did. Get married, in a fashion. In “bad fashion” to be exact.  Bright orange corduroy maternity pants. Green plaid flannel maternity top. Blue adidas with white stripes.  I can laugh now about my “wedding” outfit, my wedding day, though to be … Continue reading Re-thinking wedding days…or… to quote Bob Dylan – “Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.”

On writing.

March, 2015. By the end of the week-long workshop in Maui with Cheryl Strayed and sixty-some other women writers, I felt inspired. People had a variety of writing projects in the works or planned.  I decided to start writing a blog.  Sometimes you just gotta  dive in, get yourself wet (maybe like a baptism) before … Continue reading On writing.

Wanting, not wanting…

The Buddha said the way to happiness is the middle path — not the extreme (and sometimes grotesque) body-denying practices of the wandering ascetic sadhus attempting to counter-intuitively enhance their well-being and siddhis.  Nor would self-indulgence —an endless acquisition of things — work.  In other words, the Buddha taught neither aversion nor greed would bring … Continue reading Wanting, not wanting…

#ItMatters

Because I am retired I re-create myself most days, albeit often lazily. I’m working on that. If someone asks what I “do”, I’m usually taken aback, as if I hadn’t thought of this question before, which is absurd; I think about it a lot . Sometimes I worry my lack of a good response makes … Continue reading #ItMatters