“There’s a big orange cat stuck in a tree a few houses up,” a neighbor walking down our street told me as I carried geranium pots from my car.  “Does it belong to you?” While not ours, I knew the cat she was referring to. His owners call him Lux but we call him Reds, the name of an old orange cat …

         I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end. ― Michelle Obama, Becoming When I was eight, growing up in Princeton, New Jersey, I spent many Saturday’s skating at …

When Copco Dam No. 1 , on the Klamath River as it crosses from Oregon to California, succumbed to dynamite last year, it unleashed a torrent of water into the abandoned stream bed below, overgrown with willows and weeds. For local whitewater enthusiasts, it offered the ride of a lifetime. (See video above!) “No turning back: The largest dam removal …

January 30, 2024 Canvassing is not for the faint of heart, especially if you are allergic to rejection like me.  A few weeks ago, I belatedly signed up to gather the last round of signatures for a local petition called “Jackson County for All,” a citizen’s initiative to reconstitute Jackson County’s Board of Commissioners, a personal nemesis in my four-year …

Anne Lamott, 2021 (photo by her son, Sam Lamott) As many of you may know, Anne Lamott was my inspiration for starting this blog — and keeping at it the past five years. Starting when 69-year-old Lamott entered her early 60s, she began writing and speaking about the gifts and challenges of aging, along with life lessons she has learned. …

Clockwise: Stills from “Aftersun,” “Faces Places,” “Three Minutes: A Lengthening,” “The Quiet Girl” The Academy Awards are upon us. “And the winner is . . .”  For as long as I can remember, I have watched the Oscars, even though some years I’ve seen only one or two of the nominees. In 1966, I joined 50 of my freshmen dormitory …

“I love trains,” my three-and-a-half year-old grandson whispered to me, in the dark, as we drove from the Medford International airport to our Ashland home. Along with his parents — our younger son Dan and partner Einor — Damian had flown from Denver to spend Thanksgiving with us. He wasn’t telling me something I didn’t already know.  Tony and I …