I never wanted to be mainstream, ordinary and normal.  Unfortunately, my cooking skills don’t reflect this desire to stand-out. Cooking. Grilling. Baking. All are feats that I have marginal ability in performing. Nevertheless, on a 4th of July many years ago, I decided to do what every all-American mother does for her son’s birthday: bake Continue reading

My dad, Pike Levine, has been gone for five years, so he was not around to celebrate Father’s Day. His family was thinking of him nonetheless. His great grandson, Levi Pike Pastor, was born on June 13 and at his bris eight days later, his family gathered around to welcome him into the tribe. And at Continue reading

My first best friend lived next door and was eight months older than me. In our first grade class, she overpowered me to the point that a very wise teacher recommended that we be split-up in second grade so I could develop my own personality. (As pictured above, she was in front and I was in Continue reading

I never knew why she picked me as a friend in junior high school in the early 1960’s. All I cared about was make-up, clothes, boys, dates, weight and hairstyles. She cared nothing for these concerns. While I read Seventeenth Summer and Marjorie Morningstar about young love, she was reading Miracle at Carville about leprosy. For years, we remained close friends Continue reading

It wasn’t a good week. I was stuck inside with a killer sinus infection, dragging myself through the must-do items on my overcrowded to-do list and canceling all the optional things I could relegate to the future. In other words, postponing all the fun stuff and slogging through the rest. Ugh. Maybe it was the Continue reading

Ok, just so you know: I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. It’s always the same every year anyway: Eliminate carbs Jog three miles a day Learn French Streamline my personal belongings Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. So now I have a new approach to self-improvement – finding the most perfect stress busters. And here they Continue reading

It’s not about gardening – planting, pruning, fertilizing and watering – at least not in the botanical sense. And it’s not an optional activity. Preserving Your Bloom is about being luminous, not lackluster. Preserving Your Bloom is about trying risky new things – where the process is unfamiliar and the outcome uncertain. Like I am doing Continue reading

There is no chance I will ever become a heroin addict. I hate needles. Even the THOUGHT of an IV makes me cringe. And the ACTUALITY of one sets my normally prominent and generously sized veins into a state of such constriction that the routine procedure of inserting an IV becomes an agonizing ordeal. It Continue reading

My brother and sister-in-law, after living their entire lives in one city, retired to Arizona two months ago.  They planned to enjoy the climate, mountains and people; vacation in San Diego; visit friends in Los Angeles; explore the West and experience our country’s wonderful national parks. In the end, only moving to Arizona would come to Continue reading

Jeannie was my very first “best friend.” She is in front of me in the wagon, which, as you will see, was her default position when it came to our relationship. Tuesday, September 7, 1954: first day of school at Bond Hill Elementary. Our principal, a towering and imposing figure, mandated that each school year Continue reading