On Sunday, October 1, 2017, 867 people were shot by over 1,000 rounds of gunfire while attending a music festival in Las Vegas. Sixty of them died. Emergency support services were overwhelmed. All available medical personnel were called in but there were not enough to care for the shocked and bleeding victims who witnessed the murder of friends, spouses and strangers while holding their own deaths at bay. It was the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. All this w
out the garden by spiders and crawling folksies squatting cross-legged by the bee balm wearing catscratch outfit sunhat deadheading flowers digging clover brilliant overhead birds talking geese on another side of the lake dozed off by hypnotic insects humble bumbling around me tumbling into blossoms other flying things meandering all ways or none rosemary hollyhocks thyme all that sage hiding in the rows of elephant ears crouching with all the wild the mild pret
May, 2010 My husband, Rich and I were riding our bikes along the Inner Mongolia, Hohhot Ring Road, when he noticed his front tire was flat. We had travelled a number of miles from Rich’s University apartment. Though he knew where we were, I was lost and somewhat unnerved. How would we get back? I had been visiting Rich for the first time since he started teaching at the Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU) 5 years before. Each of these years, for one semester, he taught wr
By Janet Smith - the inexperienced grandmother It was an innocent purchase at a neighborhood garage sale. Just $5 for a faded and somewhat battered toy lawnmower that captivated a 20 month-old little boy. The other grandmother said “no, it’s broken, see?” But the boy would not be deterred. The offer of “Creemees” was insufficient to distract him from this purchase. He would have it or nothing. The less experienced grandmother caved and bought it and the little boy triumphan
I remember Benjamin, the smartest dog in the world and also the freest spirit imaginable, offspring of a big black lab, Mikey, and a little white terrier who was named Isaiah even though she was a girl, this being the '70's when hippies named their dogs and children randomly without much reference to gender. Mikey and Isaiah lived next door to one another and flirted desperately, all of us in the commune knew they were fated to make beautiful music together. Benjamin was one
