In the spring of 1997, I went with my husband Chris to the Exposition Park Rose Garden, behind the Los Angels County Museum of Natural History, with a friend of ours. Silently, we stood, observing the rows of roses, inhaling…
Blog Archives
Reflections of My Heart: Palate of Purity
It was now one year later, 1987. A Friday night in November. I had graduated college and accepted a freelance job teaching chair aerobics at the Beverly Hills YMCA. Yes, you might ask. How can a person with one arm…
Reflections of My Heart: Never Giving In
One afternoon in May 1985, I had done my classes and chores for the day. Graduation was coming soon, so it was time to reflect, retreat, and take refuge, time to go to that quiet, secluded place where I could…
Reflections of My Heart: Song
I have taken many a walk in my lifetime, although nothing like the walk I took that day back in 1993. It was a beautiful spring day in April. Alone, feeling free and at one with myself, I walked beneath…
Reflections of My Heart: Must It Be?
On a cold, gray day in March 1983, I left my last class of the afternoon at Santa Monica Community College, the academic community in which I had taken refuge, where I sought validation and redemption. But, above me, a…
Reflections of My Heart: Moon’s Glow
One Friday night back in 1982, I wrote this poem. My friend Robert and I had decided to take a walk from the West Hollywood apartment I shared with Mama up the hill to Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. It…
Reflections of My Heart: Luminous Night
This poem was written in 1993 as I became more aware of the ongoing hurdles I had to clear to stay healthy. Western medicine didn’t help. So I searched and, importantly, never gave up. Yet, I sensed that something deep…
Reflections of My Heart: Love With You
I wrote this poem in 1997 about another friend I had for a short while, a lovely Australian man. We met online and our friendship grew into love as I loved him like I love all my friends. We got…
Reflections of My Heart: Little Seeding
On my fiftieth birthday, in 2001, I was thinking about my family tree, my roots, and the history of my life, not just ethnic, but cultural too—strong, grounded, growing from kindness, love, dignity, and strength of character. I realized how…
Reflections of My Heart: Listening
This poem came to me one day, back in 2004, when I was feeling pretty down low. It had to do with the man I loved. That day my heart hurt because of the way he talked down to me…