In the summer of 2008, I walked from Chicago, Illiniois, to Saint Paul, Minnesota, with a group that was organized by a Chicago-based organization, called Voices for Creative Nonviolence. The walk was called the Witness Against War walk. For the most part, it was a good experience. I met many people who had interesting […]

  Spiders are brilliant creatures. They create engineering marvels, known as spiderwebs. The spiderwebs perform as designed, with the goal being to snare food for the spider, which doesn’t have to chase and catch its future dinner, unlike most other species. So what makes a spiderweb so successful? Well, for one thing, spiders can produce

  Here in Western New York, the schools have just re-opened in a hybrid format. Kids get two days of in-class instruction and three days of remote instruction under this format. There is also the option of only remote instruction. Some school systems are choosing a format, in which kids attend school every other day.

“We have always done it this way” We all have lawns, right? In front of houses and apartment buildings and public structures. But why? Do we really need to have manicured lawns? And why is it necessary to remove every single dandelion that pops up in the lawn? Is grass good? Are dandelions bad, evil

Motivation. I’m supposed to write about it today. It’s the blogging prompt. But what if I said that I don’t feel much motivation to write about motivation? Well, I’m not motivated, but, nevertheless, I will write about motivation or lack thereof. I have to say that motivation has a far different feel to it for

You never know what you’re going to see when you’re outside. Nature can provide you with some very unique images. Every day, there is something unexpected to be seen and, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a camera ready to record some of those images. If you don’t have a camera or a phone or some

No words. Just a groundhog looking to fatten up before hibernation time. 

Imagine yourself in a room. A large room where you can socially distance from other people. Including you, there are twenty people in the room. Now imagine that the twenty people are split up into four groups of five individuals each. And that each group is holding a conversation about a different topic. The majority

My imaginary journey continues with a visit to  Transylvania, which is now part of Romania. After my friends left Russia, I hopped on a sailing vessel and crossed the Black Sea into Romania. I headed for medieval towns, mountains, and maybe even Dracula’s castle. Would I meet up with a real, live vampire in Transylvania?

 Two years ago, the Grand Island Community Chorus sang a tender song about an elderly woman who was starting to lose touch with her memories. The song touched my heart very deeply because it is something that I live every day. About three and a half years ago, my brilliant mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. That