Sidetracked Charley

  This was where I last felt safe! I cannot go back there now because the Fire Crews are trying to make it safe again. I do not know if it ever can be safe again. But it could be home again? Can it? I joined a group for evacuees and that is a question I want to ask but they are all still so very angry and have already hired lawyers and are screaming money. I do not think money can make me feel safe. And I know for a fact anger cannot do it. Not ever. Anger takes away your well being. Sitting at this table surrounded by my art would make me feel home.  This morning in my home away from home  am trying to make Thicke feel comfortable by typing a blog where he is safe but not at home. Part of me wants to go to the kitchen of Carol's house and make coffee, and sit with my friends here but that would leave Thicke alone. Divided, It is all so fractured. My home in Black Lake where soon the sun will rise and dawn will  rise, here in Carol's studio where Thicke has settled o...

Alone in the field The end of the year always brings about agonizing reappraisal. And a questioning of my assumptions. It is always easier to do this with others but not as easy to do it with ourselves. I have promised myself to do better this year at that. A local business just announced it was closing. They blamed us locals because we didn't shop there enough. But who would want to? I asked myself. And I was one of those that shopped there. They stocked products I wanted, but increasingly I was willing to drive over the mountain to get those products. The economy gets a lot of blame for failure of businesses. I do not have enough money to shop local a lot. I try to eat at least one restaurant meal a week. It is a budget line item. If I had more money I would spend more money. I blame the economy for the low sales at my studio. That and Google Maps had me in the wrong spot. But maybe it is that I am not a good painter. Or I have a toxic personality. Admittedly nobody need...

Where have all the flowers gone? Once again the world was shaken by an unspeakable act of violence and yet everyone wants to speak about it. The news media platforms are full of it with all the gory details. Social media is full of pundits with all the answers. Including, but not limited to their favorite cause, be it ISIL or guns or inadequate policing or the wrong religion or praying to the wrong god. And everyone has their favorite solution to the problem. In the US it is take away the guns. France took away the veil. The military want to take lives. The police all our freedoms. None of these have been the answer. Many of these solutions have been the root cause of more violence. And yet we ignore that. It was all about we didn't take it far enough. Guns ought to be harder to get, we need to drop more bombs, spy upon the populations with more, strip more people naked, ban the black hoodie, forbid the religious veils and habits, close all the borders, police all the neighb...