A Beacon of Light

“A restaurant is not a business; it’s a passion.” Laura Maioglio  I’ve passed by it many times — on foot and in my car. Sadly, I never noticed it until yesterday afternoon. Just north of the intersection of Saratoga Avenue and Williams Road in San José, a small restaurant occupies a cozy, but easily overlooked retail space at…

Pip: Twenty miles on foot through San Francisco, a 101-year-old neighbor at Starbucks, and a retreat center where people learn to drop the rock — Kevin Carroll has been busy living out loud. Mara: That's the territory this episode covers: walking the Bay Area with fresh eyes, building community through small acts of kindness, sitting…

In collaboration with my son, Brendan, a gratitude cap is now available online. Click HERE to check it out. When you get to the site, the top image is significantly blurred. Just ignore it and scroll down. As you go down, you’ll see clear images of the cap, along with the link to make a…

Five thoughts for today: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”  — Buckminster Fuller “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”  — Ernest Hemingway “Though no one…

“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.”William Safire I should begin with an admission that I am not perfect. I make mistakes in my writing. Most often, a thorough proofreading of what I’ve written enables me to catch mistakes before they are published, but not always. Occasionally, an error goes unnoticed, despite my efforts to…

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I went for a walk in San Francisco on Monday. A long walk! It began with breakfast at Java Beach Café at 45th & Sloat. After a hearty bowl of oatmeal with dried cranberries, I ventured the few blocks down to the beach — to the Sunset Dunes…

“Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, and to nourish.”Thich Nhat Hanh The western side of San Francisco’s Sunset District, from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard, has become a sacred space for me. It’s a place where, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in the quote above, I am able to take care of myself, protect my…

“I can live for two months on a good compliment.”  Mark Twain Do you recall how you felt the last time someone complimented you for something? I’m guessing you felt pretty good. Compliments can do that to us. They offer the same feeling of positivity to the person who gives the compliment. There are a variety of…