On an early Friday morning, July 7th2000, my mother Mary Thelma Babarovich, died in her sleep at the San Juan Care Center. Her death was not unexpected. After all, she was born on December 28, 1905 and was ninety four years old when she died. She had been in failing health for some time. Her passing was, in fact, a personal blessing to her as she had been ready to meet her maker for some time. I've published an account…
My grandfather, Nicola Luvera died in Anacortes on Independence Day, July 4, 1956 after living more then ninety years. My chief regret is that he spoke no English and I spoke no Italian so we never had a real conversation – only through my father's interpretation. Dad believed his children should learn and speak English because we were Americans. In addition, mother's families native language was Croatian since they had immigrated from the Island of Brac in Croatia. My grandfather's…
My friend of many years Daniel Sullivan died of lung cancer the morning of July 1, 2012 in Seattle. He was 86 years old. Dan was a plaintiff's trial lawyer. He was the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association president in 1974-75, WSTLA Trial Lawyer of the Year winner in 1984 andrecipient of the then-WSTLA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Dan was my mentor and my friend.It was Dan I turned to for professional help. We associated on many cases and worked together many times. We enjoyed each others…
Have you thought about how your old ways of thinking and acting can take over your life and without knowing it, you are controlled by your deep seated attitudes and habits? Too often, it seems to me, we don't take the time to stop and reflect on who we are and the lives of doing the same thing in the same way when it would be healthy to change. One of my favorite illustrations of this is in a book Herbert…
The concept of "conscious evolution" generally holds that mankind is transforming through the integration of science, spirituality and technology. A famous French Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a paleontologist and geologist who was involved in the discovery of the "Peking Man," a Chinese skull believed to be evidence of the evolution of man. De Chardin was a man of science who became a philosopher in looking for the compatibility between science and religion. As he studied the…
Many of us are familiar with the story about the elderly Cherokee who tells his grandson a story about the inner conflict of people. It is a powerful illustration of a truth about our human nature. It goes like this: one evening, an elderlyCherokee brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. he said "my son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. one is evil. it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed,…
We are back from Europe, suffering from jet lag and not enough sleep. Here are some impressions I'm left with as a result of our trip. Let's start with really trivial things. At the end of the cruise we flew from Athens to Paris. In Paris we were driven to the Trianon Palace, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Versailles outside of Paris. There were black limos and people who looked like security around the outside of the hotel. Inside, a…
The ship is docked in Corsica on our fourth day of cruising on the Seabourn Sojourn. It is Friday May 16th about 3:30 PM. We sailed on Tuesday afternoon from Barcelona Spain to closeby Palomas Spain on our first day. From there we went to St Tropez France. It was a memorable trip at night with huge seas and winds up to 50 mph. Very rough and apparently the worst storm the crew has experienced in some time. We made…
The ship is docked in Corsica on our fourth day of cruising on the Seabourn Sojourn. It is Friday May 16th about 3:30 PM. We sailed on Tuesday afternoon from Barcelona Spain to closeby Palomas Spain on our first day. From there we went to St Tropez France. It was a memorable trip at night with huge seas and winds up to 50 mph. Very rough and apparently the worst storm the crew has experienced in some time. We made…
The ship is docked in Corsica on our fourth day of cruising on the Seabourn Sojourn. It is Friday May 16th about 3:30 PM. We sailed on Tuesday afternoon from Barcelona Spain to closeby Palomas Spain on our first day. From there we went to St Tropez France. It was a memorable trip at night with huge seas and winds up to 50 mph. Very rough and apparently the worst storm the crew has experienced in some time. We made…
