Welcome to my new newsy blog, maybe more of essay-ish articles. These will be posted monthly or, even bi-monthly, depending on my brain space.

So what is living a sand cliff life?

Because like the sand cliffs near Pria da Galé, Portugal pictured above, I am ever changing, influenced by the flow of life. The cliffs are not stable, subject to the wind and rains of the screaming tempests. They are eroding.

My days are the same as the weather battered cliffs. I have a plan to go to forest of Sintra but my car breaks down, and the next day I'm selling the poor old car for parts. I submit applications to exhibit my artwork to shows, artist grants, and galleries but there are more no's than I want to admit. My knee hurts from years of hiking, biking, sports, and accidents. Never mind the outside world whose pace far exceeds mine every minute of every day.

But life is more than complaints. It's believing what my days can hold, what ideas will come to me, what will my art unexpectedly reveal to me!

It's walking with my dog Fred in the city forest of Monsanto in Lisbon, and being blown-away by the ethereal morning light beaming through the forest's understory.

Life is about my neighbors who love Fred and think I'm ok too. Enjoying frango and wine with these same neighbors from our local churrasqueira. Opening up a second bottle of wine with these neighbors who now after years are solid friends. 

I'm really ok, as long as I focus on the life in front of me, local, within reach, handmade. This doesn't have to be something concrete or tangible but a reality that I create within me, as if I'm constructing house or maybe sandcastle is the better metaphor.

If I'm a sandcastle then at least I'm within reach of the ocean and the rhythmic waves sushing the salty air. And the blue on blue of sea and sky calm my frayed contemporary nerves.

continued.....read Thought #1