The other day when Ellen didn’t have her house keys and her friends had brought food for dinner and no one could get in, Ellen went around back, set the ladder against her bedroom wall, picked up her large pruning shears, broke the window, and unlocked the front door of her… Read full post »

The little old man lay back in the yellow chair in the living room and closed his eyes. His gray hair lay matted against the back of the chair. His eyes rolled back in his head as he thought about the day and its offerings. Now he was being asked to… Read full post »

When a heart has borne much, it needs a country walk to freshen its outlook.  It needs new air to breathe, and friends to warm that air in the breathing of it. It needs solace and care, like a flickering fire in a rustic tea room, where you know your cup reflects the temperature… Read full post »

When what is imperfect is no longer good enough, change must occur. We will be carried inexorably onward by the golden rhythmic flow of time. Here’s hoping the rocks will hold my soles firmly as I climb out of the ravine filled with the water of my own tears.

On the one hand,… Read full post »

It is a wonder to me that the Kabbalic Tree of Life has its taproot deep in the nothingness which underlies all of Creation. I imagine the nothingness as the darkness of a space so deep that not even starlight finds it. Then there are the root’s branches which evolve from… Read full post »

Cheryl Richardson wrote a book called “Stand Up For Your Life”. Great title! Standing up for their life is what transgender people do to reach alignment within themselves, in relation to their mind, body, and spirit.  

In any relationship, whenever one partner changes, the other… Read full post »

As an artist, what I love about imagery is that its interpretation is subjective. The viewer projects/overlays his/her constellation of being onto what is seen. This process happens equally with the word pictures presented on Open Salon. The reader receives a series of words in a particular order, an… Read full post »

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

I can’t remember his name now, but I turned down a local boy and invited one from a different school, whose aunt lived down the street. After we had danced one dance, him being very much the gentleman, he apologized and said he would… Read full post »

According to customer behavior theory*, each customer makes a choice by selecting the one option that is judged as being more valuable than the alternatives.

This choice involves mental and emotional processes which frame the alternatives in ways that are meaningful to the customer. The choice… Read full post »

I loved and lost! I loved and won! And the only thing which changed was the sex of my husband. He became a she.

She stands with those who love, and has always done so--as an adoption counselor, a political chaplain, a minister on the wrong side of the tracks,… Read full post »

If "love is all there is", why do we experience so many seemingly negative energies in our lives? Why do people, intentionally or  unintentionally, have to hurt others in their searches for self-esteem and validity?

 I know of a time when all was well and clean and pure, when people loved… Read full post »

There is a river which flows, intraconnecting all levels of energy with each other and rendering harmony its consequence. I felt it as I was driving along sunlit tree- and blossom-lined avenues in my golden Accord with the August Rush soundtrack playing. The music lifted me in its swath as… Read full post »

Although for years I have contemplated life from a peaceful perspective, now I'm contemplating it from an angry perspective. I'm angry, it seems, about a lot these days. I'm angry about time taking away precious moments that I want to last longer. I'm angry about people apparently getting away with t… Read full post »