All of the roses in my garden have been in full bloom for at least a couple of weeks, but it was just this morning that I noticed there were several red and white blossoms on the guava tree. The olive tree is loaded with tiny off-white buds, and one of my pomegranates has several … Continue reading Blooming and Bearing
Musing
Beauty in the Blunder
If I have set down roots, it was less from intention than from the combined forces of time, circumstance, and inertia. The spirit of a vagabond still resides within me. But somehow, the years have passed, and I find myself living in a house with a lush, mature garden that I alone designed, planted, and … Continue reading Beauty in the Blunder
A Lazy Man’s Load
When I was in college, I worked part-time in a family-owned coffee-roasting and gourmet food store. We had loyal customers, who appreciated the quality of the merchandise and the low prices. I made it a point to greet people warmly, as they entered the shop. It became my mission to get the cranky ones to … Continue reading A Lazy Man’s Load
The Essence of Liberty and Love
Sifting through source materials in my quest to find meaning and cohesion in someone’s long-forgotten life is one of my favorite pursuits. I have traveled thousands of miles to sit in the quiet rooms of faraway libraries and archives, poring through antiquated books or binders filled with thick parchment pages. But there is nothing like … Continue reading The Essence of Liberty and Love
A Pathway to Perdition
There is a writers conference coming soon to a city near me. Wouldn’t you know it? The first literary agent listed among the panelists is the New Yorker I wrote about in November (see Flying Blind), who proudly announced on X-Twitter that she categorizes people by race and prioritizes manuscripts submitted by People of Color … Continue reading A Pathway to Perdition
The Shattered Mirror
Considering how many times Donald Trump has pointed to the representatives of the press and declared, “Fake news,” there is still a lot of handwringing in some quarters. In the pre-internet world of my childhood, I started reading newspapers regularly when I was about 12-years old. Walter Cronkite, the anchorman on the CBS Evening News, … Continue reading The Shattered Mirror
An Obvious Choice
Back in the days when I worked at the coffee store in Berkeley (see Flying Blind), I met a German nurse. She confided that, some years earlier, her brother-in-law had been in the painful end-stage of terminal cancer and, at his request, she injected him with a lethal dose of morphine. I wasn’t sure why … Continue reading An Obvious Choice
Flying Blind
The first sound I heard when I awoke yesterday was the honking of the Snow Geese passing over my roof. I went outside and observed wave after wave of them, flying in formation above my house. There must have been hundreds. That’s the great thing about living directly under the Pacific Flyway. A couple of … Continue reading Flying Blind
Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Big Hollywood and Big Beer have taken heat for pushing wokeness over common sense, but the literary world seems to be flying happily under the radar. Since most publishing houses don’t accept submissions directly from fiction writers, it is necessary to go through an agent. For many good reasons, a screening process is required. During … Continue reading Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Music and Memories: Living Along the Void
Just before my father turned 80, he decided to sell his ocean-front condo in Florida. Dad was living in an over-55 community, and he was getting depressed seeing so many of his friends and neighbors become infirm or die. His kids expected him to move to a smaller condo in an independent living residence. To … Continue reading Music and Memories: Living Along the Void
Roxane Gilbert 