I was standing behind the front desk at the Channel Islands YMCA Thursday morning. Earlier, when I woke up and sat in meditation and drank coffee and read books and wrote Morning Pages, I…

I went hiking in the Laguna Lake open space yesterday, a little after noon. The air was clean and sparkly from the previous night’s storm, mountains bursting into the blue, streams of white clouds…

I snapped this picture at 6:30 last night. A storm dropping down from Alaska swept through much of California the last couple of days – the central coast here drenched from early Monday evening…

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings I went out in the dark to look at the stars, in particular Orion’s Belt. For some reason it has taken me five months of living in San Luis…

The seven days, the seven hikes through the Laguna Lake open space….Friday I perceived myself as nothing more than a ragamuffin, ambling along, stopping again and again, maybe the 23rd time looking at the…

Out on the Laguna Lake trails later Thursday afternoon, home from work, a coffee at Starbucks. “Hey” to the baristas, Dylan and James. Day six. There are more clouds now as autumn settles in,…

Perhaps you remember the scene in “Field of Dreams” where Shoeless Joe Jackson, stunned by the life he finds himself in, asks Ray Kinsella, “Is this heaven?” And Ray answers, “No, this is Iowa.”…

Everything so alive. Walking deliberately, like kinhin? The morning alive with birds, hawks, sisters, cousins. Rarely possible to be so lazy – lazed strolling – Every weed, wildflower, stalk of tall brown grass dancing,…

Walking slowly. Hips, legs, feet deliberate, savoring every moment. Embodying the place of belonging utterly. Slower and slower. Weekly, daily, these couple of hours. Take it all in. Straight ahead, turn around, mountain, cows.…

Last week I made a decision to hike the Laguna Lake trail seven days in a row. This followed a conversation on Zoom with my Zen teacher. I began Saturday, today will be my…