The toughest year of my life was 2019. In retrospect, I figured it was a dress rehearsal for 2020.

I suffered some personal blows that lead me to seek refuge in the famous, “Who am I and why am I here” question. The painful process led me down a path that had me taking up a paintbrush for the first time in my life and I began to put acrylic to paper and then to canvas and by the beginning of 2020, I had almost 100 pieces and many of my questions answered.

For some reason, (I have still not…

Every day I read about persons asking about meditation and how to do it. They share their frustration at not being able to ‘get it right’ because they could not stop their thoughts. So instead of sitting quietly and experiencing whatever they figure they should be experiencing, they end up with thoughts about work, their partner, their neighbor’s dog, their children, the economy, unemployment, the pandemic, and… and as a consequence, no peace was felt. Then, upset and anxious, they see their ‘failed’ process as another thing they did not get right.

I believe that there is no wrong or…

Nature is Supernatural

I went to my garden early this morning. I was hoping to pick my salad greens and herbal tea leaves while the droplets from the early morning rain were still on the plants. It was supposed to be a quick pick and go. Today was Saturday and there was a lot of not to do. I did not see any monkeys in the nearby trees so I guessed they had beaten me to the ripe sugar apple and almost ripe avocado I was looking at from the evening before. I shrugged. So what? …

I planted some pumpkin seedlings about two and a half months ago, smack dab in the middle of the summer’s heat. Since there was little rain, they had to be kept alive by daily hand watering. They wanted to grow and produce but it was obviously difficult for them, then the beautiful butterflies came in mass, laying eggs on every bush in the garden including these pumpkin vines, making the struggle for survival a real one. My five plants, down from six, were now at war against heat and worms. There were times when the worm damage was so bad…

Change is not always a bad thing. Sometimes we are called to make changes that are small, manageable, and basically pain-free, and other times, changes are so impactful that they completely alter life as we know it. The year 2020 was not an easy one for many of us. The kinks in our amours were exposed, our vulnerabilities were laid bare and we began to understand that continuing to live the way we did was not in our best interest. We had to change.

For those of us who lost jobs, we had to find some other means of supporting…

Miss Gen Z and I had a strong debate recently, actually, it was very strong and would have measured about 9.0 on the Richter scale. I do not like to term our dueling with words as an argument, it gives a negative connotation to the interaction. I prefer the term debate because at the end of it, almost always we would have learned something new about the other and about our view of life which ultimately strengthens the bond between us. If you have been reading my stories, you would have met Miss Gen Z already and I know you…

Your invitation is in the mail

I am getting married and brimming with excitement. The engagement is official and it will be a grand affair. In the meantime, I am getting to know my partner better,

the dark side,

the shadow side,

the jealous side,

the critical side,

the self-debasing side,

the lack-of-confidence side,

the hurt-inner-child side,

the daddy issues side,

the timid side,

the insecure side,

the energy vampire side,

the boring side,

the fearful side,

the hateful side,

I started a community vegetable garden in the middle of summer and it was a struggle to keep it going. Living in the tropics with long days, high heat indices, and little to no rain at this time of the year, attempting to cultivate a kitchen garden during these months was really a trip down insanity lane. But it was something I had been if-ing and but-ing about for a while so when I finally got the area fenced and the garden beds prepared, putting seedlings into the earth was naturally the next step.

I have always had this strong…