Earlier this week, I was chatting on Twitter with my friends Susan Piver, Jen Louden and Mahala Mazerov about writing. We talked about writing that liberates rather than congeals. Writing as discovery…

Sea foam sparkles on the waves. Sea lions
roar. Foam shivers, flies
into the wind. The tide holds its breath.
Hisssssssssssss

**********

Ganesh’s belly rests in his lap. His trunk
caresses tree, root, sky. His feet…

Last weekend, I learned that I’ll have to leave the house I’ve lived in for the past three years. Its owner, a lovely woman, wants it back for her own family as a vacation home.

Not today, not tomorrow,…

I woke up that September morning, eight years ago today, with a stiff neck and a sore right hip from sleeping on the couch in my cousin Dinaz’s living room. My fifty-two-year-old body, unaccustomed to narrow, hard mattresses and the…

In honor of my 60th birthday later this month, I share this story, which I wrote a long time ago, celebrating the spirit of love, community, and the wonder that lives in our hearts. Enjoy!

…………………………………………………………………..

It was a hot,…

Every once in a while I run into some cool technological marvel that brings the wide-eyed child in me onto her feet, exploding with excitement. I grew up in a pretty low-tech culture—India in the 50’s and 60’s—so it doesn’t…

On August 6th, 1945–64 years ago today–the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. An estimated 140,000 people died as a result of that blast. Today, the city of Hiroshima leads the movement for world peace. I am proud…

When I wake up, the house hums with silence. The air in my room is hot and still on this end-of-July morning. For the past several days we’ve been in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave, here in the…

Yesterday, for the first time since I had hip replacement surgery in February, I wore shoes with laces. Black shoes, light as air on my feet, with grey and black laces that I bent over to tie into tight loops.…

As some of you know, I grew up in Bombay, back when it was a relatively small city of about eight million people. Crossing the road—any road—was both high adventure and low comedy—the kind that leaves you breathless, with an…