In February of 2020 we learned that the StoryCorps booth would be coming to the Fresno area in California during the summer months. My daughter, Jericha Rendon, put in a request for an appointment with the idea that she would like to interview me (Emily Lee) regarding my experiences growing up and living on with … Continue reading A StoryCorps tale
Author: Rising Over the Smoke
What comes next, last 12 months?
Twelve months and counting it is since a less-than-stellar year began in an individually rough manner for me, starting in February 2020. A big downshift in the way I live my life, marginally because of Covid 19 and the social chaos of racial justice and political upheavals began the first week of February. Much of this … Continue reading What comes next, last 12 months?
On apocalyptic wildfires
This began as a Facebook post before it decided to make an appearance on my slumbering blog. I've been tracking the Creek Fire in Fresno/Madera Counties, California for one week now, as it's seventy miles east of our home, up in the Sierra Madres between the Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Also... peaceful music to … Continue reading On apocalyptic wildfires
Are we nearing the destruction of America?
June 1, 2020 Recently I came upon a prophetic passage regarding the worrisome future of America, which was conveyed ninety-nine years ago (June 10, 1921) in a letter to the head of a Baha’i organization in this country. In it the writer quotes ‘Abdu’l-Baha, who was at the time the head of the world wide … Continue reading Are we nearing the destruction of America?
Friday for Favorite Things
Having fun here on a Friday afternoon... Not my image but I do like it 1. Favorite Harry Potter Movie: The first, because there you have all the rest to look forward to. 2. Favorite String Instrument: Ukulele, which I am learning to play. It’s therapeutic, since my hands have nerve damage from decades of walking … Continue reading Friday for Favorite Things
Earth Day 50 reflections
Here we are and it’s Earth Day 50 this time, so unlike a single one of the previous forty nine observances. Circumstances for me as this Earth Day rolls around involve sharing a home in California's Central Valley with my daughter, her husband and their almost nine-month-old son — my first grandchild and a … Continue reading Earth Day 50 reflections
Ties binding us
Note: None of this is political. No more than simply living is political. I try to think according to the words of a great spiritual master, 'Abdu'l-Baha Abbas: "Walk the spiritual path with practical feet". Behind our house in California’s hot, hot Central Valley sits a long wooden fence, above which wave a number of American … Continue reading Ties binding us
Of dogs… and then there was one
Elf the Corgi is now an only dog. Throughout yesterday and the day before she and her human, Emily, sat with their faithful companion of eight years, Opus the Dachshund-Terrier, in his final hours. He passed at home, in his crate, about 4:30 in the afternoon of April 17, aged fourteen years. There was a … Continue reading Of dogs… and then there was one
In which a hummingbird tribe sends me a message
Around Thanksgiving fall really started to put in an appearance here. Trees along neighborhood streets in Madera, California put on their scarlet and deep red tones, some went brilliant gold. I wish I could give you the names of these lovely beings, but alas, my knowledge of the numerous imported trees around the region is … Continue reading In which a hummingbird tribe sends me a message
Of light and darkness
Lately a sense of inertia has come over me. Days are so much shorter than they were even a month ago, so much colder than they were in high summer heat here in California's Central Valley. Each day I get a vivid show of how Earth turns its northern hemisphere away from the sun … Continue reading Of light and darkness