We met in the hospital smoking area; as the ambulance and fire trucks rolled in to drop a patient off he looked wistfully at the men in uniform and sighed, “I love firemen.” I laughed and replied I did also. He was HIV positive and asymptomatic. I was 18 weeks pregnant with stage 3 cervical cancer I told him as we sat waiting for our significant others to pick us up from this exciting round of Who’s Your Doctor. Every week it was the same; a new doctor to give your history to, a new treatment, a new pain med. Knowing time is short, we became fast friends. He came to my house after I lost my son and seeing the bottle of liquid morphine on my nightstand asked if I had ever smoked weed. It helped with the pain and didn’t have the side effects morphine did. You mean…

What are the stories behind our storytelling tools?

1. “Ungumming the Keys.” (B.J. Hollars, The Rumpus, September 2014)

The author purchases a typewriter engraved with mysterious initials and dives into the pasts of its potential previous owners.

I dimly remember Andy Goldsworthy from when I lived in the UK, perhaps through that veritable institution Blue Peter, but his work didn’t connect with me at the time. I recently rediscovered Goldsworthy through his book, Time, that I found when I was browsing in a bookstore – remember those?

Andy Goldsworthy is a ‘land artist‘, a sculptor who uses the elements of nature as the materials for his sculptures. There seems to be a balance between the permanent works done with stone and the more ephemeral sculptures made with fallen branches, leaves, and ice. Thinking about his more transitory work made me think harder about why I photograph, I’m not sure that I would be happy to see my constructions disappear as the weather changed or the tide changed. Perhaps the change that ensues is part of the process and that seeing how the…

My autumn watercolor palette has joined forces with a

• Platinum #3776 fountain pen
• Pentel Pocket Brush Pen
• Autopoint Twinpoint 0.9mm mechanical pencil (Two grades of lead are better than one.)
• Kuretake Waterbrush
• Stillman & Birn Epsilon Sketchbook (5.5″ x 8.5″)
• Lamy pen holder
• Two small binder clips
• Paper towel
• Staples Arc notebook band

to form a compact kit for writing and doodling any time space is limited or travel is necessary. The notebook band holds everything securely so I can grab the kit on the go. It also keeps the journal closed so the pages do not get damaged and bits I’ve tucked between pages stay put. However, if I want to play things extra safe, a clear, plastic zipper bag that formerly held a pair of new pillowcases, is the perfect size for the whole caboodle. Another option is to place the waterbrush in a zip lock bag…

Some captured Labor Day weekend nature moments at the Marianist Retreat Center…

flying saucer spider web

Dear Doctor,

I’m going to come clean with you. Actually, I’ve tried to be clean, because I know I’m going to have to submit to a urine test. So I’m going to be totally honest with you and pray this doesn’t backfire on me. When I do that urine test, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a positive result for THC in my metabolites. But I can assure you that I have not used marijuana in over three weeks. I’ve been trying to be clean in order to get my prescription for hydrocodone. So I’ve had to do without both my pills for most of the past month, and the marijuana.

Since I’ve come clean, I have suffered the pain tremendously. I didn’t realize just how much a part that marijuana played in making me feel less pain. See, there’s never a day that I’m pain free. When I…

Pens dominated this week, but there were a few other things worth mentioning…

• Bertram’s Inkwell: Marlen Aleph Grey Fountain Pen, a modern flex nib
• FPGeeks: The Franklin-Christoph Music Nib is now available for purchase!
• Writer’s Bloc: Quo Vadis Scholar #55 Academic Planner Review
• Gourmet Pens: Pelikan Souverän Red M600 Review
• Dragon Company: 万年筆 (Man’nen’hitu{histu}) is the Japanese word for fountain pen (h/t FPGeeks)
• Pen and Design: The Hobonichi Planner
• Vintage pens in demand from collectors
• Free email course helps you start your book, finish writing it, & get it out there
• Decal Art

It was time for the interrogation of the suspects in my house.

Suspects; My Hobbit-like wife, Sheila and the dookie licking daughter, Lacy.

I had searched almost an hour for the bacon that I had bought the day before and stashed in the crisper drawer of our refrigerator.

It was Farmland’s Hickory Smoked Bacon with low sodium.

It was nowhere to be found.

I tore that fridge apart!

I even looked under the lettuce for god sakes!

I even checked the receipt from the grocery store to make sure I hadn’t imagined it…

I am almost 50 years old, after-all…I….forget stuff……sometimes…..a little.

I didn’t remember waking during the night and experiencing a pseudo-sexual bacon feeding frenzy.

I thought about it for a second….

If anyone knows, I know….that anything can happen @ 2 am in a dark kitchen, bathed in the low glow of light from the fridge.

No, that…

“In this weekly commentary on the lojong, I am not open to the feed becoming
a debate for people to nitpick Buddhism or my interpretations of Buddhist concepts.
(There are lots of places for debates.)  I am more interested in hearing about
YOUR life or how it affected you or your practice awakening in some manner.”

This is the note I have at the end of my pages on lojong.

I have had some emails about why I say this.

I think I need to be very clear why I say this, for those of you who have never
seen simplistic zennies argue over points endlessly.  There is a long tradition of
debate in Zen circles.  While it is interesting if that is what you are after, I want this lojong offering to be personal.  I find that Buddhist debates are rarely personal.
I find that the greatest…

Another painting in my café series. I have done this before but tried a second version. This time trying to get a feeling of hustle and bustle.

By SERGE F. KOVALESKIAUG. 9, 2014

Above:

Nearly four years ago, Dr. Sue Sisley, a psychiatrist at the University of Arizona, sought federal approval to study marijuana’s effectiveness in treating military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had no idea how difficult it would be.

The proposal, which has the support of veterans groups, was hung up at several regulatory stages, requiring the research’s private sponsor to resubmit multiple times. After the proposed study received final approval in March from federal health officials, the lone federal supplier of research marijuana said it did not have the strains the study needed and would have to grow more — potentially delaying the project until at least early next year.

Then, in June, the university fired Dr. Sisley, later citing funding and reorganization issues. But Dr. Sisley is convinced the real reason was her outspoken support for marijuana research.

“They could never…

735/1000 #DrawingAugust
The garden…it’s television for cats!
Pen

Charlie Parker died to play this music. Bud Powell died to play this music. After suffering through the worst holocaust in human history, these brilliant Black artists gave the world a gift. This gift was so potent that not only did it help them leverage some modicum of autonomy, but helped other oppressed peoples of the world find themselves. It even freed the souls of those who uprooted them from their homeland of Africa and enslaved them for centuries in a land not theirs. It is through Black music that White America began the process of healing itself.

I didn’t think back in May of 2005 when I was generously quoted in Stanley Crouch’s piece entitled, “The Colossus,” which extolled the virtues of Master Rollins, that I would have to sit up here today and call out the same publication for attempting to besmirch his character. I hesitate to write…