“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom.” – George Washington Carver One of my sewing women from the Tepehua group recently posted the following quote on Facebook and I thought it was beautifully appropriate to show the value that our Mexican neighbors place on education. “They said to me ‘Imagine something […]

A Day at The Ranch About nine o’clock in the morning, one of The Ranch’s four part-time employees arrives to unlock the gate. The sound of about a hundred dogs can be heard in the distance. After entering the property, the staff member drives up to the small office “casita” and unlocks that. There, they

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone, we find it with another.” Thomas Merton The eight types of love according to the ancient Greeks: Eros: The love of passion, romance, and desire that occurs in the beginning of a relationship. Philia: A deep, platonic, and affectionate

Shelley Edson Email: ElOjoShelley@gmail.com From the Lakeside Living Editor: Please send information for a local cultural, civic, community, or charitable event to ElOjoShelley@gmail.com on or before the first day of the preceding month by noon – for example, the deadline for the April issue is noon, March 1. Please include the event name, description, location, date(s),

I arrive in Mexico City aboard the seven-hour Turistar from Tlaquepaque and hit the ground running. My first morning, I make a beeline for the Palacio Nacional, Mexico’s White House. The National Palace is a grim, imposing affair, the color of burnt oatmeal cookies, stretching for a full city block. Buttoned up tight, several layers

The topic this month is Shingles (herpes zoster) an infection that causes a painful rash. People get shingles when the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which causes chickenpox, reactivates in their bodies later in life after they have already had chickenpox. About 1 in 3 people in the United States and Canada will develop shingles in their lifetime. Your

I was recently vacationing in Guatemala with my daughter and adult grandson. We had just checked in to a gorgeous Spanish colonial hotel in Antigua, Guatemala. I had a beautiful room with a garden view and a king-sized bed all to myself. That morning, I had received an email from a former workmate named Al.

Francisco Madero Francisco Madero inherited one of the five greatest fortunes in Mexico, so he and his family had done quite well under Porfirio Díaz’ three decades of dictatorship; and he had everything to lose by leading a revolution. But, lead one he did; and lose his life for it he did, too. Madero was

When Fantasy Dies In 1967, when “Brown-Eyed Girl” was on the airwaves of our transistor radios, my neighborhood friend Julie and I would fall into a rapture every time the song played. We both had brown eyes. The song was meant for us! We were too young to date, yet we really wanted boyfriends. The

The Quest for the Fabled Lost Locomotive There were the three of us on that steamy summer evening, bug bitten, sweat soaked, caked in mud, seemingly defeated in our quest and yet determined to continue. There was my dad, then in his 80’s, who thought he knew the location of the site deep in the