Living way out in the sticks like we do means we have few conveniences. No drive-ins nearby, no clothing stores, not even a cell phone connection. But we are surrounded with beauty so exquisite it can steal your breath away or fill your eyes with tears.

My desk is a paper hurricane in stasis.  In fact, my entire office is one grand pending avalanche of notes, notebooks, research and writing projects. Time to clean and organize the place. But I'm not good at cleaning and organizing. Are you?

Nothing stops the flow of life. Not war or floods or earthquakes. Not even death. So how do we deal with this never-ending flow, especially knowing that our part in the flow is temporary -- "A ripple in the stream" so to speak.

While I'm not a fan of cell phones, I am a fan of Jerry Brown's and I love what California's new governor did this week about state-sponsored cell phones.

Woody Guthrie's songs of hard times and suffering during the Great Depression are as fresh as this morning's pink slip. If you haven't seen the musical "Woody Guthrie's American Song," find where it's playing and go see it. It'll stir your heart and might even get you singing.

Somewhere around 50 we start realizing how our birthday numbers are piling up. How did we get so many candles on the cake?

Stacking and restacking firewood is not only hard work. It can also be an introduction to all the critters using our woodpile for their own purposes