There aren’t many weeks when it’s difficult for me to think of one “big” passion to write about. Several events come to mind that appear to qualify as passions in their own rights.

1. I spent a wonderful day with my mom yesterday. We didn’t go to Costco, Target or Wal-Mart. We took a drive to the coastal town of Oxnard where the temperature was 30 degrees below the 90-degree weather in the valley where we live. We let the GPS take us to a swell crunchy fish restaurant for lunch, and to the beach, and to Ralphs, where I finally found bags of frozen cherries that I enjoy so much.

2. This morning I received the email I was waiting for. It was from the horticulture expert who wrote one of my tree books. He identified my photos of five trees that I had sent him last week. Since I have learned to identify almost all the trees in my tree books, it is exciting to learn about the trees I cannot identify.

3. At my doctor’s appointment this morning, I was so pleased that the shot in my trigger-fingered hand was not very painful. The doc had a thin new needle (“The second thinnest needle available,” he said). Not only that, he waylaid my fears about two ongoing events I was worried about. In appreciation, I told him I would make him a new alien abduction pop-up card. He seemed pleased.

4. My wife had a hankering to go with me to Whole Foods this afternoon to buy some natural and apparently healthy foods. Upon returning home, I helped to make Tahini (sesame seed sauce) in our blender, I tasted fennel for the first time, and I am looking forward to the “natural” peanut butter.

Could it be that each of the passions I described is actually a “big” passion and, that instead of concentrating on only one, I decided to write about all four. Did I worry that if I wrote about all four at length, my essay would be too long? Did I worry that if I wrote about only one passion, I would forget about the others or forsake them altogether?

Maybe I should do this more often.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at Robertebsen@hotmail.com