Welcome
Thanks for tuning into my latest Deep Dive. These essays are a labor of love. I never know where my next inspiration will come from or where it will lead me, I just try and go with it, letting the words flow from my brain, through my fingertips and onto the page. Sometimes these stories write themselves, other times it feels like pulling teeth. I’m glad you found your way here. Pull up a chair, sit back, relax and enjoy!
~ Louie
Solar Light Enchantment
Night begins to fall and the solar lights blink on one at a time, it’s a reliable progression. First is the light bulb replica, the incandescent variety basically unchanged since the days of Edison. It hangs from the bare branches of our Asian pear tree. Below the...
Buddha’s Got It All Figured Out
In this photo, Buddha’s eyes are closed in a state of silent meditation, his head tilted downward as he contemplates his navel, his body glows in stark contrast to the dull grey fence behind him. Buddha’s hands are in his lap, his thumb and forefingers touch in a...
Mac’s
I’m sitting at the counter of Mac’s Deli & Cafe in downtown Santa Rosa and it feels just like I’m in a movie about a typical morning at an old-school diner. My seat is a low, wicker- backed chair, the counter formica. Through the opening into the kitchen three...
Winter Trilogy
On the cusp of Winter Solstice, I've had some thoughts about the upcoming season. Leaf Ballet A handful of leaves cling stubbornly to the branches of our majestic valley oak, a tree that one day 20 years ago poked its spindly trunk cautiously out from the cover of...
Back To The Garden
The definitive song about a seminal event in the counterculture of the 1960s was written by someone who wasn’t even there. Joni Mitchell was supposed to be at Woodstock. She was also booked on the Dick Cavett Show the day after the festival was to end. Joni and her...
Dad and Me and Sports
My dad Ray Ferrera passed away quietly last week, he was 95. Here's my tribute to him. On Father’s Day in 1965 I was eight years. My dad was taking my older brother Ray and I to see our first baseball game at legendary Yankee Stadium. I’m sure I must have been super...
The Phil Zone
The word of Phil Lesh’s passing at the age of 84 came via a text message last Friday from an old Deadhead friend of mine in New Jersey. It was a bit of a shock as I wasn’t aware that Phil had been sick. Most of the musical heroes of my generation are in their late...
It’s Ok
It's ok to just sit here, right? It’s ok to watch the green fingers of the apple tree sway in tandem with the singing of the wind chimes, right? It’s ok to watch the sky-blue scrub jay hop from tree branch to lawn to fountain. It’s ok to marvel at the stillness and...
Old Friends
Q: When are 50 year old jokes the funniest? A: When they’re told among the same three friends 50 years later Of all the blessings in my life, and there are many, I count my friendship with Tim and Benji as one of the most blessed. And those 50 year old jokes? They’re...
Found Feathers
The hike I went on today was all about feathers. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there they were: A 12 inch long, steel-grey wing feather from a Great Blue heron, a tail feather from a crow; coal-black and broadly rounded at the end in two heart-shaped humps. I...
Song In My Head
Research has shown that the most effective way to conjure up an old memory is through the sense of smell. Well, the researchers never got around to my house because for me it’s always been music. Growing up in a house where music was always playing in the...
Imaginary Glances From Behind Green Facades
I get the feeling that someone or something is watching me. Am I being paranoid or are those just imaginary glances from behind the green facade of the forest? The canopy in here is thick and nearly impenetrable, what light that does make it through is green and...