I love this!!

46112My feelings about building on this particular flood plain are unmixed.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa is an internationally recognized wetland, although it's a ghost of its pre-European invasion...

I would say dipped, not tanked. It did look shaky at first, but things have mostly returned to normal, at least in Sebastopol. I still see lots of local goods, especially produce, and a lot of the...

I find the hype about prices at Whole Foods tiresome. If you stick to the luxury items, it's expensive. But if you're just trying to get a well-rounded organic diet into your kitchen, it compares...

Turkeys are native to Eastern North America, but not California. There are a LOT of turkeys living in the Sebastopol area. When I first saw this one, she had a companion. They, and now she by...

Greg Sarris also appreciates vultures, including their tender loving, which he and I have both had the honor of witnessing.

For many years I've said that I want to live long enough for Sky Burial to become legal here (again).

While I appreciate the Tibetan form (well portrayed in the stunning movie Himalaya), for my...

While I appreciate your wish to remain independent of monied interests, I think it's always good to learn from groups that are different from our usual fellows. While you are aware of fees paid by...

Oh for god's sake, we really need a hospital emergency room and other services right here in town! If we can't do better than supply spoiled hippies and tourists with another tasting...

Another strategy for coffee (and tea!) cups is for the vendor to take 25 cents off the price if you bring your own cup.

It doesn't provide revenue, but it does provide motivation. And the vendor...

Whole Foods in Sebastopol has a wind cork recycle bin.

I've used the hospital services twice in the last two months. I'm very grateful it's there, and hope people understand its value and keep it going.

I doubt that birds mistook St. Francis for a tree. I'm sure they knew exactly who he was.

Yesterday I received an email from Kevin Monroe, the Laguna Foundation's new Executive Director, with information about where the herbicides were applied:

"Looks like the only place in the wetland...

Seeing the announcement about the Sebastopol Walk beginning at the Laguna Preserve, I have to ask:

How many people are aware that the Laguna Foundation applied the herbicide Telar XP to several...

Shepherd, Last night I had the pleasure of dining with David Keller, Bay Area Director of Friends of the Eel River. This morning I went to FER's site and discovered this excellent article on wine...

A two-fold good list:
what not to allow from others, and
what not to do to others.

I recently found a May, 1975, issue of OK Corral: The News Magazine of the Lane County [Oregon] Mental Health Association. On the front page is an article I wrote way back then. It's relevant to the...

Shepherd,

Thank you for this insightful article. You have strongly stated many important points.

I would like to add some thoughts about the Wine Empire and climate chaos, and possible actions...

30715

Here's the fifth of 500 friends for rain*:


blessing


go forth,
one family.
call rain
to the redwoods,

Here's the fourth of 500 friends for rain*:


meditation

raining.
in our dreams it’s
raining.
we dream showers,
thunderstorms, & torrents.

Here's the third of 500 friends for rain*:

sermon

mushrooms
are telling us
the pain
of long dry soil.
we pray mycelium
still thrives below.

Here's the second of 500 friends for rain*:

confession

this drought,
a climate wound,
tells us
our foolishness,
our affluence must pass.
this way of life

My friend Jim Wilson loves syllabic forms and has created one of his own: 100 Friends. Fifteen lines carry 100 syllables over 15 lines in this order: 2, 4, 2, 4, 6, 4, 6, 8, 6, 8, 10, 8, 10, 12, 10....

Beautiful poem, Larry. Here's a related painting, Fox Walks with Those Who Are Gone But Still Loved:

29870

You can see it at Sebastopol Gallery.

Whole Foods didn't start selling rabbit meat because "sales of other meats were falling." They were responding to requests for rabbit, which became more convincing when their customers went to...

A perfect New Year's Blessing. Thank you, Larry!

Are you kidding?

My family has only needed to visit an emergency room four times in the last 10 years. The first 3 times we went to Palm Drive. The 4th, since Palm Drive closed, we chose to tough...

27295another for don


love without truth
isn’t love

truth without love
isn’t truth

where they coincide

I have just sent Mr. Rabbitt an email in support of keeping Efren Carrillo on the Sonoma Clean Power board. I am ashamed of the continued ill will of the West County progressive community, which I've...

Very sensible, Shepherd.

I'd like to add that, whatever its outcome for Efren Carrillo, a recall campaign is certain to weaken our community. The waste, the animosity, the divisiveness will do...

I can't comment on your Recall Carrillo Facebook page without "liking" it, which I don't. If I could comment, I would say this:

I fully support Efren Carrillo in continuing his work as Supervisor,...

I have just emailed all five Supervisors supporting Efren Carrillo in continuing his work as Supervisor.

the day25442


a day comes
when selfishness reeks
from every remembered wrong

in the middle of his life
russell means vowed
never again to pray for himself

It's not about seriousness and frivolity. It's about an orientation harmonious with what needs to unfold.

Neither would the goddess hire someone with tongue piercings for her woodwind quartet,...

If I were the goddess, interviewing prospective applicants for the job of motherhood, I would not hire anyone with nipple piercings.

brigid’s day25222

bare branches thrashing in the wind,
winter willows clutch the sodden bank
of swollen creek.

they catch the feeble sunlight,
dance it brightly over supple twigs,
buds...

Good point, Victoria.

Nonetheless, I'm unlikely to sign any change.org petitions in the future - unless I have independent verification of the story presented.

Having watched Efren Carrillo's...

24408I'd like to see our lovely town revert to the name it had when it was a peaceful Pomo Village: Batikletcawi.

Batikletcawi means where elderberries grow, far more auspicious than a moniker...

october evening
24013

soft blush
of dirty air
as the sun drops
& cold swallows
the lingering fake
of summer

Thank you. Just signed and shared on Facebook.

Beautiful!!

An ongoing problem is that people completely fail to distinguish what you know from what you don't know.

Among the things you absolutely do not know are the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of...

Jonathan,

It's a tempting bet, but I don't expect anyone will bother to sue you for libel. I do think your distortions of the facts, your innuendos, and your unsubstantiated claims are libelous....

Your post reminds me of a comment the physicist Wolfgang Pauli once made about a colleague's particularly sloppy thinking: "You're not even wrong."

I've noticed that the "facts" we know from the...

I was not at the Board of Supervisors meeting. If I had been there, I would have spoken emphatically in support of Efren Carrillo staying on the job.

Why wasn't I there? Because my professional...

Thank you for this story: beautiful and so civilized. Go to this link, folks. It's inspiring.

I like apologies, and Efren’s statement to the Board of Supervisors is an unqualified, no-excuses apology. This is rare from a human being. From a politician it’s exhilarating fresh air.

I liked...

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.