October 3rd 1952 – January 2nd 2023 Cassandra Budlong at her photographic art exhibition at the American Women’s Club of Zurich, 2019. Our small zoom writers group, of which Cassandra was a part, gave her a good send off last week. Helen in San Franciso made Cassandra’s Nana’s scone recipe.…
Footnotes and battle scars
Each birthday is a round number Another smooth pebble in your shoe Wearing you down or Enlivening you With stories to share Battle scars, lessons Footnotes Like little gifts from the crows To the girl who loved crows Bringing her small offerings each day Perhaps a paper clip or a…
Stuck vs unstuck
It’s easy to tell others what to do about feeling stuck: “Just move something and that rearranges everything..” But that hasn’t worked for me recently. Fortunately Joy Drake offered a simple formula: Awareness + Choice = Change Awareness – Choice = Stuck What I see now, thanks to Joy’s magical…
May you bring light
This year, may we each bring more light to our world. Igniting others to do the same. But how? On the quantum level the material world is not continuous! Each instant, its substance is entirely different. This means that all that is holding the world in place is a consensus…
Going nowhere fast? (The hidden gift)
Recently, while cycling uphill in fog, I hit a patch of ice on the road. Suddenly my wheels were spinning but I was going nowhere fast. Sound a bit like your life this past year? Me too! Late November, I cycled to a friend’s house for a birthday tea…
New Start?
Perhaps one day, we’ll look back on this period of our lives and say, “Hallelujah!” Even though we don’t yet know why. If you google “Hallelujah” (as I just did to check my spelling) you will find Leonard Cohen’s spine-tingling “Hallelujah” on Youtube and straight after it, another Cohen classic:…
How can art triumph over violence?
“Remember that your nations measure you by what you create and not by what you destroy.” What to do about the growing number of disappearing journalists, the escalating violence towards environmentalist activists, or concerned citizens who dare to speak up about pipelines going through their sacred grounds, or about their…
The Return of Jennifer
Suddenly the name Jena feels too tight. And Jennifer has returned home, to remind me to step into a bigger, more authentic version of myself. She was a gift from my parents and only called on when it was “time to really get serious”. Therefore I’m happy to have her…