Category: Thought Piece

Trail Hop East Bay Regional Parks

by Haleh

The weekend’s odd trail challenge had me hitting three of the East Bay Regional Parks in one day, a combined feat in hiking, photography and navigation. I was making up for a couple of weeks of sloth, a few too many quesadillas and a delayed Earth Day. Signing up for the Trails Challenge meant I got a groovy trails guidebook and the ability to log my miles and trails. For more social media-motivated hikers, the Challenge offers apps and ways to share and encourage friends. For real, not digital, social good times, the guidebook highlights the many free, guided hikes tailored to different skills and interests. In other words, I have no excuses. BayMozaic launched with a dual mission: to highlight Bay Area folks and organizations improving our lives, while also revealing ways to connect and be attentive amid the din. The parks represent both. They provide a common good (brought to you by us, the taxpayers of Alameda and Contra Costa counties) that benefits our environment and our health, including our mental health. If you’re …

Sound Story

by admin

communication (n.) late 14c., from Old French comunicacion (14c., Modern French communication), from Latin communicationem (nominative communicatio), noun of action from past participle stem of communicare “to share, divide out; communicate, impart, inform; join, unite, participate in,” literally “to make common,” from communis (see common (adj.)). Sound surrounds. It diligently delivers the raw data of our perception field. Simply, it communicates the basic properties of nature, location and nuance of physical existence. Sound is the raw testament to the dynamic range and pulse of life processes, cueing us to the trickling mutations in our personal, manmade and natural spheres. We are the chosen addressee for the sounds on the street, the shifting seasons, our internal dialogue – all in constant motion – they depict, emphasize, fight for a place in the ear of the beholder, inviting us to pick our moment’s residence among a myriad of possible worlds, some familiar, others taking our attention to lands undiscovered. Sounds can captivate us, scatter, leave us inspired, heartbroken, frozen or frazzled. Hidden within basic air pressure displacements …