NASTURTIUMS: MY SAVIORS

The Park Fire here in northern California tried to snake its fiery fingers right into my world, coming within three miles of my house. It freaked the living daylights out of me, relentlessly debilitating me for a whole month. The … Continue reading

Healing/Creating Hands

Source energies curl and furl in my palms. They remain there until I start working on something. Sometimes they churn and make my hands tingle. As soon as I begin to focus, the energy passes through to my fingers. Way … Continue reading

What Inspires You?

I was taught that “great artists wait for inspiration to come to them, and then they create.” So obviously, if I wanted to become a great artist, I needed to wait for inspiration to come. Well that’s just total BS. … Continue reading

I Lost My Temper, and Lost Everything

Freya. Little Freya. Five feet nothing, thin as a rail. Powerhouse. Strides in from the outside deck, leaving the door wide open to the frigid, whirling snow and cutting wind. Which wasted no time rushing in and wrapping itself around … Continue reading

I Had A Tantrum Yesterday, and It Wasn’t Pretty

Finding out I had zero choice set me on fire. I can usually put up with automated customer service, whether on the phone, or online chat. But this time? Oh my. We bought a new mattress/box-spring set from a company … Continue reading

Teachers: Make Money Selling Your Lessons

Here’s something that surprised me recently – did you know you can sell your lesson plans? You can! And people pay dearly for them! You can also sell your worksheets, class exercises, reading guides, and other helpful educational resources! ARE … Continue reading

Get Your Audience Settled, whether Live or On Zoom

You’re about to lead a workshop or presentation. You want to begin, but your audience comes into the space full of energy, busy-busy chatting, walking around, chaotic. This is for you. What I’m about to show you works for in-person, … Continue reading

God Rays Under the Water

27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part IV Each day, just as evening began to shade the sky, an enormous, rippling line across the horizon in front of us appeared, darkly ominous, growing bigger and bigger. The first time … Continue reading

Sailing with Giants

27 Days Sailing from KAUA’I to CALIFORNIA, Part III As we began to plod our way through the Doldrums, I started having a recurring dream when I settled down in my bunk to sleep after my night watch was over. … Continue reading

Dreams of Devastation Morph into … Pickled Red Onions?

I keep having dreams where I’m standing in a dried up, deserted field. In the distance, I see the crumbling husks of hundreds and hundreds of houses, and the blackened, burnt skeletons of the once-magnificent trees that used to shade … Continue reading

Last Does Not Mean Loser

(Published in Small Craft Advisor Magazine) We were in the last part of the first pack. The finish line seemed impossibly far away. It was right then that I made the most colossal mistake. I had been so proud! I’d … Continue reading

GIVE IT UP!

(Published in Small Craft Advisor Magazine) Sailing is more than ‘just a skill.’ It’s a life-and-death adventure every time you go out, and if you have even one smidgen of smarts in your head, you know you have to be … Continue reading

Ten of the Strangest Fears You Ever Heard About!

Tonight, when I was reading about fears, I saw this word: Kakorrhaphiophobia, so I decided to play google search. I love googling weird things. I’ll type two unrelated words in the search bar and hit go, just to see what … Continue reading

What Happens to You When You Watch Scary Stuff in Movies and Videos?

Sometimes I do things that drain my energy. I forget to stop, and end up an emotional mess. Have you ever done that? A video I watched a couple of days ago that a friend sent me was one of … Continue reading

My Thoughts of Peace Fly Out Far Beyond Me

Because love is a verb. And it acts a million times more powerfully than our puny little minds can imagine. At 13, my dentist decided that deflowering me right in the open, right on the dentist chair, would be a … Continue reading

Hope Is A Beggar. Or Is She?

I once knew a fantastically popular, immensely powerful man. Once his swooning fans had left for the night, he would retreat to his den. He’d try to bend his skeletal frame around the huge, impossibly soft pillows on his couch, … Continue reading

What’s the Difference between jpg, tif and png Image Files?

What do the different file type names mean and how do they affect your images? These explanations of file types will help you understand what kinds of files to use for your documents, print books, ebooks or websites. Cover of … Continue reading

Why Do Some Men Think It’s OK to Be Such A-Holes?

What can be done about it? How do we deal with it on a daily basis? I can hardly believe the things men oh-so-casually do to women. The things they have the nerve to say. Even after decades of observing … Continue reading