There was a long and winding road. There were semis blasting by. There was an echo of long lost voices of those who had traveled before. There was diarrhea. Explosive diarrhea. Followed by a rinse with the only liquid available: Gatorade, and thirteen more miles of walking before the day was done. Not once, though, was Andra Watkins afraid as … Read More
Life Happens
“It was amazing how you could get so far from where you’d planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be.” (Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye) If things had been going according to plan, I’d be writing this post from Switzerland, on the last leg of a three-week trip that was to begin with a flight … Read More
The Gift of Found Time
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ― Annie Dillard A little over eight years ago my father’s heart stopped. One minute he was clutching his tennis racquet and waiting for the other doubles team to serve. The next, he was on the floor. His wife, an ex-firefighter and an amazing human being, resuscitated … Read More
Hitting Bottom and Calling it Home
Thirty one years ago, Jim Mastro applied for a job as a seal trainer at the San Diego Zoo. He didn’t get it so he went to work in Antarctica. For a year. When I met Jim earlier this year at the Southern California Writer’s Conference, I knew none of this. If I had, I would have abandoned what I … Read More
A Journey To Now
In May I was feeling the loss of an old friend very deeply. It was his birthday month and a year since the last time I’d seen him. May was the time he’d normally be wrapping up his training for the Mount Washington Road Race in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range. Unable to run last year, he and I made breakfast … Read More
Strangers in a Strange Land
Michael Valentine Smith may have prevented a murder back in the summer of 1974 when my brother and I were stranded in Port Angeles, Washington for nearly ten days. In a Pinto station wagon. In the rain. It was day five or six. I remember the relentless drumming of water against the car roof. I remember waiting to take my … Read More
Road Trip, One Page at a Time
With this post, I begin a month-long celebration of journeys and books. Each post will focus on a particular journey and the book that either took me or came along for the ride. Because this month also encompasses my birthday, always a milestone in life’s journey, I want to celebrate by sharing the books I mention here. Each post will … Read More
Fences, Fear, and Friendship Park
I live about 25 miles from the border crossing between California and Mexico and except for a ride to Rosarito Beach back in the eighties, I’ve never been there. I live about 125 miles from Los Angeles and I go there, or through there, five to ten times a year. In fact, I just returned from my most recent trip … Read More
Lost in Plain Sight
Taking a walk with Oliver Gray isn’t easy. He lives 2,300 miles and three time zones away. But I’ve taken seven walks with him to date and plan to take another on Friday when he posts the latest in his series, “Forgotten Fridays.” Here’s how it all started. One night last week, I took an amble through his blog, Literature … Read More
Re-entry
You know that half groan, half-shriek the gears make when you thought you were shifting your car into second and you hit reverse instead? Or, forgot to punch the clutch all the way to the floor before trying to go forward? Oh, you never did that? Fine. I bet you still know what I’m talking about. It’s the sound you … Read More
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