It rained more than 4 inches Sunday in San Francisco. Note that this is an all-time city record for the month of October. Of course, “all time” is a very narrow concept. In San Francisco it means less than 200 years. Still, it’s enough. Enough to rejoice. The rain fell in sheets. The skies opened. It’s almost impossible to avoid cliché, and also impossible to describe. Some point out that after this much drought, the ground cannot absorb much water. That’s OK. The reservoirs in the Bay Read more [...]

Thing about the Dark Night of the Soul is that it is followed by the White Knight of the Soul, vis-à-vis morning. I went to bed on Friday, still painfully aware of the red rash on my face. That is to say, a modest array of painful bumps on my forehead, cheeks, and right eyelid. And these stinging sensations struck up a sort of harmony with the existing orthopedic aches emanating from much of my body. I have been thinking long and hard about the latter, by the way. A hot tub might be the perfect Read more [...]

We were driving home in the strangest of situations, an actual rainstorm with clouds lowered over the bay, and we got to the Golden Gate Bridge, and somehow the world seemed right. It had been wrong. My personal world has shrunk enormously. The very absence of a wheelchair that can perform more maneuvers than a Cirque du Soleil acrobat, well that was a big thing. Oh for almost 4 days I had not been able to tilt, rise, extend, or lower, various body parts. And my response was startlingly grim. It Read more [...]

I was filled with an unaccountable joy. It is probably accurate to say that joy is an unfamiliar state for me. Not that I am opposed to it. Just not well acquainted. And what made it unaccountable, aside from its unfamiliarity, was multi-layered. I’ll put it down to my SE work. Somatic Experiencing…what a horrible name…trains a person to focus on the physical sensations of emotional states. I’ve been at this three years, and having been at psychoanalysis for only a slightly longer period Read more [...]

When you consider that 25 years ago, I had just taken my first trip on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, and that 25 years later I have completed a book on the experience, well, that’s something. Anyone who reads the above line and wants to penetrate deep into the heart of my reality may be able to spot one telltale word. “Completed.” Yes, the book is done. I am done. I am done with the book. Jane is done with me writing the book. Who wrote the Book of Love? Me. So don’t wonder, wonder, wonder. Read more [...]