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By Kaethe Kauffman. Re-printed with permission. In October, our thoughts turn to those spirits who may still roam among us. Other cultures didn’t try to keep these phantasms away, but encouraged them to stay with us, believing them to be ancestors who could help us from the beyond. The Standing Gong from North Ambrym Island…

I’ve fallen in love with Zoom and other electronic meetings. Most people I know use this novel medium for group gatherings now. I’ve come to admire our collective frontier gumption. As we’ve felt our way toward this new communal experience, we’ve become explorers.  With more people using digital get-togethers, I’ve become delighted to see us…

I’ve never envied my older sister, Marlene, until a handsome seal fell in love with her and not me. While kayaking in the Queen Charlotte Islands in western Canada, a group of friendly seals suddenly surrounded us.  After five or ten minutes, the one pictured above stayed near while the others wandered off. The seal…

Next to my urban apartment building’s back entry, seven months ago, it looked like a pizza joint’s small door probably received a fast fist punch or two. Fist-sized holes near the middle of the door exposed a cheap hollow-core structure underneath. I lived in a semi-gentrified urban area and the adjacent dance clubs attracted young…

I loved my pace, whether walking or brainstorming an idea. A lot of my identity wrapped itself around how fast my brain and body moved. During the years when I enjoyed a long partnership, he strolled as we walked. With him, I slowed down, but sped up again when on my own. When making decisions,…

It’s horrible to hate someone, like my current colleague, Josephine. She triggers me into instant fury with her insults and lies. I strategize on how to stay out of her way. When I must encounter her, I raise my mental and emotional shields. I repeat affirmations to dispel the dread she inspires in my gut.…

My elderly neighbor, Ed, has a pet fish, Norman, who lives in a thirty-inch-long aquarium. Beige and white speckles adorn the classic-looking fish that seems to have no exotic pedigree. But Norman excels at eating and growing. In the past year, he’s expanded to about eleven inches long. My nine-year-old daughter, Grace, loves to visit…

Water has intelligence. As novelist Tom Robbins explained in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, water originally designed humans, composed of 65% H2O, as receptacles to carry it world-wide. Mankind finds itself in the throes of a pandemic, spread by droplets of fluid that have reached across the globe like a viral tsunami. Daily, people of…

I overheard a woman in a row behind me on an airplane say, with a loud angry voice, “I just wish for once you wouldn’t analyze and criticize every little thing I do and say.” That’s all I heard, for she and a male voice lowered their volume. But I surmised they were married. By…

In an unconscious way, I seemed to encourage people to confide in me. I’d always delighted in asking folks questions. Could I help it if they answered me? Recently, I’ve heard three doozies. See links below for all 3. These three unsolicited revelations shocked me and caught me delightfully unaware each time. But, upon reflection,…

Remembering my humbler moments helped me deflate my monster ego, which, before I knew it, could blow up like the Michelin Man, and look just as ridiculous. Ego could sneak up on me completely unaware, which was always hard for me to believe. Humble Moment #1 I had a silent neighbor who I got along…