As I start each new decade in life I have asked myself, “Am I grown up yet?” … And back has come the response, “When I grow up I want to [insert one adventurous goal or another]. So okay, I guess the answer could be Not Yet. This year's birthday, though, brought me up sharp … Continue reading A hospital stay for my birthday!
Author: Rising Over the Smoke
Rising Over the Smoke is me looking for larger patterns, hidden meanings in what goes on all around us. The world gets more conflicted and confused from one year to the next, or so it seems. Some days life feels fresh, open, energized, connected, others more nuanced, confused, distanced, lethargic. To me writing is a way of exploring my place, and perhaps that of others.
I am Baha’i, thus my thoughts are affected by my faith. Beliefs include independent investigation of truth, equality of men and women, the essential harmony between science and religion, that there is one God from whom all the world’s religions spring, that we diverse humans are all of one family. The Baha’i Faith is unlike other existing world religions as it does not claim to be the only “true” path or religion. The Baha’i Faith acknowledges all sacred traditions and religions as equal.
…Prayers … and actions! are with you
"My thoughts and prayers are with you" is a phrase in the air constantly whenever (pretty often these past few years) there is a horrible big event ranging from mass shootings in schools and elsewhere to wildfires and floods. But how much change occurs as the result of the expression? Pretty much none, at least … Continue reading …Prayers … and actions! are with you
Losing touch with the ancients
Lately many miles of protected national lands are being opened to fossil fuel extraction. Opinions are so very divided on how to proceed with this... Native tribes in the southwestern USA oppose reduction of national parks such as Bears Ears in favor of oil, gas and coal leases. To them the "empty" acreage is … Continue reading Losing touch with the ancients
Rising over the …. wildfires?
An occasionally comforting thought to me is the way that nature with its laws goes on doing what it will in spite of the changes wrought (or attempted to be) by human hands. See how golden and, well, fallen the big leaves on this small beginner bonsai gingko tree are? Unlike their midsize street counterparts … Continue reading Rising over the …. wildfires?
Special places of the mind, feet and … wheels
Of late I’ve been thinking of special, secret places I’ve loved in the past, wondering why it’s so difficult to find such a spot now. When I was a child we had a forested area on the hill behind our eastern Massachusetts home. That’s where my grandmother and mother would take my brother and me … Continue reading Special places of the mind, feet and … wheels
Trees and Shuffle Puffling
Fall tends to start off, for me, with a sense of glory. Flaming leaves to look forward to. Bright pumpkins, fresh roasted chili, people seeming to draw closer together as the days grown shorter and cooler. By mid-ish November things are turning more bittersweet, generally, for me. I start feeling cooped up, hemmed in, pushed … Continue reading Trees and Shuffle Puffling
Thinking on photons
Here am I lying on my back on a hard, narrow “bed”, part of the quiet linear accelerator (linac) that is bombarding a neatly — if invisibly — delineated section of my chest with photons. This happens five days a week, late morning. Often Joél, one of the technicians, starts up a playlist for me … Continue reading Thinking on photons
Carpets can have crop circles
Of late mysterious little shapes like crop circles have been showing up in the (none too thick) dark brown carpeting of my apartment’s main bedroom. The one I share with Elf the Corgi and Opus the Dachs-Terr. The things unfailingly appear in the evenings, after dinner, before the dogs’ final outing of the day. Usually … Continue reading Carpets can have crop circles
Change the unjust laws
Thank you Lord, for offering me so many rides around the sun, for good family and friends. For giving me strength to get through difficulties, awareness that events that I have so rebelled against furnish me with strength. In time, if I let them… Things we take for granted. The mystery and wonderment at … Continue reading Change the unjust laws
Panic on a gurney
Two days ago I had another day surgery, related to the breast cancer surgery of June 13. This was meant by the surgeon to be a simple event, draining a painful, annoying hematoma that didn’t seem to be shrinking on its own. A twenty to thirty minute procedure. Nothing went sideways till the cheerful young … Continue reading Panic on a gurney
