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Author, Artist, Storyteller

LIFE'S SECOND ACTS
a blog by Marilyn Woods
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"Life is about using the whole box of crayons." ~ RuPaul
“There are certain shades of blue that make me ache.” In her recent newsletter, this one titled “Shades of Blue (and Something New),”...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Aug 105 min read


News from granddaughter Number Five!
As a writer who has NEVER been published in the New York Times, and much more importantly as her grandmother, this is wildly...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Jul 151 min read


Bill Murray and me . . .
Bill Murray Sighting in Bankers Hill, California Actually, there is no Bill Murray and me. But, in my mind, there’s a Me and Bill Murray....

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Apr 92 min read


Apple non-Intelligence . . .
Since the moment close to two decades ago when I first opened the slender, rectangular white box—minimalist and elegant in...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Mar 266 min read


"Oh, I believe in yesterday . . "
Art by Boltax Yesterday, I totally wasted the day. Amazingly, it felt good. I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to work a to-do...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Jan 231 min read


At last!
At last. A bona fide perk of old age. At least for us elders in California. Scarcely able to believe what I was seeing in the San Diego...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Oct 20, 20242 min read


July harvest 2024
In my small circle, July brought forth three baby boys and one very large cucumber. I had nothing to do with birthing the young boys; I...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Aug 6, 20242 min read


Sky High on that roller coaster again . . .
"except for the Presidential s**t show..."

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Jul 8, 20242 min read


Does anybody really need four and a half cups of brightly colored paper clips in their desk drawer?
Existential questions like this over an extended period of time led me to re-imagine my office recently. My corner office. Before you get...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
May 11, 20243 min read


I love my neighborhood...
It’s fascinating how one person’s seemingly innocent gesture can affect another person in unknown and unexpected ways. There’s a house on...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Sep 17, 20233 min read


Perhaps the most magic time of day...
We were together at twilight time. As we strolled, holding hands after Cadillac margaritas and carne asada fajitas at our neighborhood...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Aug 19, 20224 min read


Still a bright light...
Today, I spent the morning cleaning and polishing my dining room chandelier. It’s industrial design featuring ninety-six crystalline...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Jun 18, 20222 min read


You Take my Breath Away...
The stirring, captivating, and extraordinary music of Eva Cassidy floats through the air in my home as I write. I have listened to her...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
May 13, 20226 min read


Olive overdose...
Via Zoom, Jan, my good Duplicate-bridge-playing-friend, said, “Can we take a break? I want a V-8.” We did. When we resumed, I heard the...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Mar 15, 20223 min read


Welcome to 2022 ya'll!
I am an incurable list maker—never more in my sweet spot than at the beginning of the New Year when it’s time to write resolutions....

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Jan 10, 20224 min read


Oh Christmas tree...
Way back before the twenty-first century began, in 1999, there was an extraordinary garden store in Santa Barbara, Smith & Hawken, where...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Dec 17, 20212 min read


Is it only me?
Lost in translation in a QR Code nation. Weird sensation Increasing presence in my everyday life of a two-dimensional square made up of...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Dec 2, 20213 min read


In the spotlight...
On my radar…an architect, an actress and an unbelievably awesome vocalist – all women! First, one of British drama’s royalty, Nicola...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Sep 11, 20214 min read


Once upon a time...
There is a strong possibility it will never come to life. I have big-time doubts. It has completed the embryonic stages. And is out of my...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
May 2, 20211 min read


TGIF
The moment my foot hit the flagstone path leading from my front door, I felt a vibration; with each step, a pulsing sensation coming from...

Marilyn Gardner Woods
Mar 28, 20213 min read
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