My #GivingTuesday ask

It’s #GivingTuesday and although you will be inundated with deals and pleas today, I’m adding to the pile.
Normally, I’d ask you to give generously to the NW Parkinson’s Foundation …and I still want you to, if you are able.

Click HERE: https://www.facebook.com/donate/863424048411052/

But there’s more, and it’s not about money.
Here’s my simple “ask”:
GIVE.
Give to charities, yes, if you can. But more importantly, give of your SELF. Many of us —especially right now — feel ‘donor fatigue’ or just don’t have extra money to donate to charitable causes.
Give your TIME: volunteer for a cause that stirs you. Work with passion and purpose.
Give your TALENT: causes, charities and others need your skills (life and professional) as much as they need your cash. What are you good at?…Someone needs it.
Give your BUSINESS: If you own or operate a business, look at ways to leverage your business to help a local non-profit or charity. Not sure how to do that? Ask them!
Give your STUFF: I bet there’s some cool stuff you’re not using that a local non-profit would love to be able to use.
My point is this: Giving is not just about cash. It’s about You.
“To give genuinely is to give generously…”

So please: GIVE

Five Rules

•Five Rules •

“A couple of years ago, I shared my Five Rules. Those were firmly in force on a short photo-detour this evening. It had been quite a while since I took a quick work break to catch a sunset but I saw this one developing. When it’s 15 minutes before sunset and you’re 11 minutes away from a great view spot…!

• Always take the sidehike. Always.
• Look for the shot.
• Don’t outstay your welcome.
•Remember where you parked.
• Keep Moving.

A pretty night here in #MyNewOregon. And worth the outing.”
-G.

Self-Portrait with Umeboshi (with recording)

O at the Edges

Self-Portrait with Umeboshi

Our resemblance strengthens each day.

Reddened by sun and shiso,
seasoned with salt,

we preside, finding
comfort in failure. Or does
the subjugation of one’s flavor for another’s

define defeat? The bitter, the sour, the sweet
attract and repel

like lovers separated by distances
too subtle to see.
Filling space becomes the end.
What do you learn when you look through the glass?

Knowing my fate, I say fallen. I say earth.

Ah, simplicity! When I was a child my mother would occasionally serve rice balls in which a single mouth-puckeringumeboshi rested at the center. These have long been a favorite, but I admit that umeboshi might be an acquired taste. Commonly called “pickled plums,” ume aren’t really plums but are more closely related to apricots. I cherish them.

“Self-Portrait with Umeboshi” first appeared in the Silver Birch Press Self-Portrait Series (August 2014), was…

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Sleepless

O at the Edges

Sleepless

One night exhausts another,
layering sheets and blankets,
wrinkles and folds. Oh, the
body wants to still the mind,
and shedding this weight,
float freely through the night.
Your memory of sleep’s touch
withers as you lie there,
absorbing the fan’s pattern.
How wonderful, then, to finally
drift across the room and settle
in that relaxed corner, among the
cobwebs and shadows and those
frustrated hours now set aside.

“Sleepless: first appeared here in October 2017.

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•Post-Dad Father’s Day•

The Sea has restorative powers. We come to the Sea to breathe.”

“Many many years ago, while beach-walking with my young daughter, a new story came to life. We were walking, talking, looking for beach treasures, discussing the waves. We would excitedly scurry up to partially buried sand dollars only to find just a broken portion. The partial ones my daughter would bring to me, I would throw as far into the breakers as I could, assuring her that part of the magic of the Sea was that the mermaids would heal them, putting them back together to continue their journeys, so they could again be found on the beach another day. Rather like the magic of the Sea that allows the starfish to grow a new arm.

In the days that followed my Dad’s death in early March, I was bereft and drifting. I came to our beloved beach with my family but I was distant the whole time. Every morning I walked for miles on the beach, thinking, remembering, talking to the waves, crying, mourning. I wasn’t able to allow the Sea air to fill my lungs, to revive me. To heal me. One morning I was treated to the most whole-sand dollar finds I’d had in my entire life of beachcombing. It was remarkable; I saved about 20 of the best ones, left some at the beach house, some at my Mom’s house; carried a few home with me.
A hundred days later, I returned and walked on the same beach, followed the same path Dad and I had often walked while talking and watching the waves. I was treated to characteristically calm Manzanita mornings, and my walks this visit have been more peaceful, more restorative. I could finally breathe.This visit has yielded one single perfectly whole sand dollar.I held it, read it, sensed that my Dad was reminding me to give myself permission to Breathe. To continue my journeys and be able to find myself on the beach another day. To continue to work to become a good and decent man. To keep moving. And perhaps to keep casting sand dollars back into the breakers.
I have miles to go.”

—G.

Words With (or from) Friends

My friend Lisa is rather remarkable…

Somatic Memory and Deathiversaries

#GivingTuesday…a simple Ask:

It’s #GivingTuesday and although you will be inundated with deals and pleas today, I’m adding to the pile.
Normally, I’d ask you to give generously to the NW Parkinson’s Foundation or The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research…and I still want you to, if you are able. But there’s more, and it’s not about money.
Here’s my simple “ask”:
GIVE.
Give to charities, yes, if you can. But more importantly, give of your SELF. Many of us —especially right now — feel ‘donor fatigue’ or just don’t have extra money to donate to charitable causes.
Give your TIME: volunteer for a cause that stirs you. Work with passion and purpose.
Give your TALENT: causes, charities and others need your skills (life and professional) as much as they need your cash. What are you good at?…Someone needs it.
Give your BUSINESS: If you own or operate a business, look at ways to leverage your business to help a local non-profit or charity. Not sure how to do that? Ask them!
Give your STUFF: I bet there’s some cool stuff you’re not using that a local non-profit would love to be able to use.
My point is this: Giving is not just about cash. It’s about You.
“To give genuinely is to give generously…”

So, please:

Give.

Worlds I Create

Pix to Words

I create these worlds
Of personal sanctuary
A beauty and calm
Cloaking distress and fear
Palaces of chilling warmth
An argument with reality
Which cannot be won

I remind myself
The world of distress and fear
Is also a creation of mine
The cloak only gives it power
The palace of true warmth
Is the light of my own heart
Which cannot be sundered

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Bookends. Leave Only Footprints

•Bookends

•Dawning and Dimming of the day.

•Leave only footprints, take only pictures.

•Chasing light, crunching snow and logging CharityMiles.

•Miles to go…

Giving Tuesday: My Ask

It’s #GivingTuesday and although you will be inundated with deals and pleas today, I’m adding to the pile.
Normally, I’d ask you to give generously to the NW Parkinson’s Foundation or The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research…and I still want you to, if you are able. But there’s more, and it’s not about money.
Here’s my simple “ask”:
GIVE.
Give to charities, yes, if you can. But more importantly, give of your SELF. Many of us feel ‘donor fatigue’ or just don’t have extra money to donate to charitable causes.
Give your TIME: volunteer for a cause that stirs you. Work with passion and purpose.
Give your TALENT: causes, charities and others need your skills (life and professional) as much as they need your cash. What are you good at?…Someone needs it.
Give your BUSINESS: If you own or operate a business, look at ways to leverage your business to help a local non-profit or charity. Not sure how to do that? Ask them!
Give your STUFF: I bet there’s some cool stuff you’re not using that a local non-profit would love to be able to use.
My point is this: Giving is not just about cash. It’s about You.

“To give genuinely is to give generously…”