January 2025 Story Sparks


Rupie’s Rendering

I Say! Let me introduce myself. My name is Rupert though my friends call me Rupie. I’m not named for the British mogul, but rather a character in a popular British children’s book series (and a friend of my humans’ pastor). I’m British but not the stuffy kind. My mom (and where I was born at StoryTime Cavaliers) happens to like story character names. One of my brothers, who my mom and dad almost took home, is named James Herriot from All Creatures Great and Small. James has already won lots of awards. But as a show dog, he has to travel and take baths and be groomed and such while I get to boss my humans around, splash in puddles and roll in desert dust. That was close – my almost having James’ kind of structured life. I bet James never gets to crawl over fences and meet neighbors and have my mom look overwrought when they return me to her. I don’t mean to bring her misery, I just can’t help myself. (She says the same things about dark chocolate) After my last escape she put an Apple airtag on my collar. What an airtag is I do not know but she sure found me quick last week! I do have to sit in my “Place pad” but that’s another story.

I live in two states with yards of either rocks or grass. I love rocks, all sizes. I love pushing them on the patio and making noise or bringing little ones into the house and hearing them rattle on the wood floor. I like the sounds I can make. People say it’s our noses that are so special, but I say, it’s noise that is the elixir of canines. Training takes up a lot of my time as my peeps can be quite recalcitrant in teaching them what my noises mean. This is important work for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, especially when my mom’s on a deadline as she is now and has a new book coming out. I have to go above and beyond to get her to hear me when she’s doing things on that screen she calls it. I thought a screen kept flies out but that’s just me. I love catching flies. I did go with her to a signing once when I was 10 weeks old. I didn’t see any signs like “No dogs on the grass” or “Please pick up after your dog” so I’m not sure what made it a “signing.” But there were lots of books around and people petted me and commented on how handsome I was. Of course they hadn’t seen me after I’d crawled under the couch to get a toy. My mom said I was avoiding a bath. Anyway, I’ll stop by my mom’s newsletter from time to time and let you know how life is going for a rockhound who lives with a writer and a retired guy. Oh, and I’m also a citrus-rat hound but that’s a story for another time. I hope to see you this summer at signings when my mom’s book comes out and she leaves her screen behind. I’ll be looking for a sign that says, “Pups welcome.” See you then. Bark! Bark! Rupie.

 

To Navigate

While I don’t make new year resolutions, I do choose a word – or one is given to me. This year it’s navigate, something that takes patience, planning, prayers and a bit of luck to successfully arrive where one wishes. It brings to mind a meditation by Yung Pueblo (the pen name of Ecuadorian poet Diego Perez) that begins with

Practice the strengths of the earth

Have a giving nature
Be grounded in your purpose
Hold firm in times of turbulence
Cultivate the qualities of water
Move through life with gentleness
Have access to your power at all times
Flexibility and persistence increase success

I’m thinking of those affected by the California wildfires – and that’s all of us in many ways. Here in Rancho Mirage we have wind but nothing like what the LA area faced and faces. We don’t have the foliage that multiplied with a wet winter a year ago and now, after months of no rain, is fuel. Apocalyptic fuel. At the dog park, we met evacuees waiting to learn of their home’s fate and how they’ll navigate their future. All of us are devastated by watching a touch of Eden, torched. Life will never be the same. Rebuilding a state that is the 5th largest economy in the world will take years. Grief is just beginning.

My word Navigate has already made me make changes. Below are some ways we can help those directly affected navigate their turbulence. The list was compiled by my writer friend Susan Tweit in her Substack column PracticingTerraphilia.

“Because we are all part of the web of lives that weaves this extraordinary planet. Because the earth is round, not flat, and what we give out comes back around eventually. Because when we lift each other, we all rise.”

Some Places to Donate or Volunteer Right Now to Help With the LA Fires:

The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation is asking for support to buy fire fighters supplies like hydration backpacks, emergency shelters and tools.

Global Giving has opened a specific fund for wildfire relief to support local groups involved with communities and first responders. (Global Giving has a 5-star rating from Charity Navigator, so you know what you give is used well.)

Mutual Aid LA is compiling a directory of resources for those affected by the fires and windstorms. You can donate directly to help with the directory, or pick a group to assist.

California Community Foundation channels funds to local organizations helping with wildfire relief and recovery.

Pasadena Humane Society houses pets dislocated or lost in the fires, and reunites them with their owners wherever possible.

People can also help by supporting LA businesses, including Bauer Pottery, the last of the iconic Arts & Craft era southern California art potteries still in operation. An order to an LA area business keeps people employed and supports the economy there.”

My parents got an entire set of Bauer Pottery on their honeymoon in 1941. I treasure this set.

This year, in my storytelling life, in this newsletter, in my world with spouse, family, treasured friends and neighbors, too, I will navigate with gentleness, flexibility and persistence in order to reach my destination. I hope to navigate differences in my world, sometimes choosing silence or at least a pause rather than separation. I will try to remember that to turn a ship or stop it, one must begin the effort long before arrival. No quick stops permitted through stormy seas. And sometimes, as did the Magi, I will remember it is no failure to go home by another way, navigate anew.

Navigate

Do you cite a word or make resolutions or both? I’d love to hear about them. Reply to this email or post on my facebookpage where I’ve posted about navigating and included some of the California fire response resources.

Events 

Book signing event at Waucoma Books
May 31, 2025 – 12:00 – 2:00pmHood River, Oregon. from 12:00 – 2:00pm

Book Signing event at Cannon Beach Museum
June 7, 2025 – Cannon Beach Museum, Cannon Beach. Presentation and signing. Books provided by Cannon Beach Book Co. – Join Jane and poet Dana Hunke-Stone, author of Amuse Bouche a Taste of Melancholy. With permission, Jane used one of Dana’s poems in Across the Crying Sands. Dana, a local coastal poet, will share some of her wonderful poems along with Jane telling stories!

Book signing event at Tillamook Library
June 13, 2025 – 5:00pm – Tillamook Library – presentation, book sales and signing.

Book signing event at Beach Books
June 14, 2025 – 11-2:00 Beach Books, Seaside, OR. Signing and chatting.

Word Whisperings

JAMES, A Novel
by Percival Everett
Doubleday, publisher, 2024

This fast-reading and yet deeply moving novel won the National Book Award and so it should have. It is the Huckleberry Finn story told through the eyes of James, known in that Mark Twain novel as Jim. The Mark Twain novel has been banned in various places though I’m not sure why. Percival, who is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California said of his work, “I hope that I have written the novel that Mark Twain did not.” Huckleberry Finn is an adventure story as is James. But James asks us to look at slavery and freedom and family and power through a very inventive lens. It’s funny in places but more it poignantly speaks to friendship, the intimacy of strangers, the power of language and the longing of family to shape who we are and how we see others and what becomes important in our lives. I know a dozen book groups reading this book. I’m in one and we’ll discuss it this month, a perfect time as we remember Martin Luther King day. The copy about the book says it best: “A profound meditation on identity, belonging, and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love…” A great read to begin a new year.


Awe Walking

In one of my earlier newsletters, I wrote about the power of awe walks. Taking time to notice and not just walk along, appreciating the small gifts we often rush on by. I have passed this spot often on my daily walk with Rupert but today I didn’t see a piece of metal protecting a pipe. Today, it was an abstract painting. Lovely colors, maybe someone standing, looking. A Rorschach test? What do you see? If you find treasures like this on your awe walks, I hope you’ll post them to bless us all. They’ll help us navigate the day lifting fuel from awe to move us forward with courage and compassion in this new year.

______

Warmly,

P.S. I often get requests from those wishing a book list of my titles. Incidentally, Wikipedia has some errors. Visit my Bibliography webpage for the real scoop.