I started this blog nearly three years ago during the first weeks of the pandemic lockdown. At the time, I never expected it to be a long term project. This is post number 155. To date, the blog has 13,000 views from people in 45 countries. That blows my mind! Those stats don’t exactly put …
Closing Thoughts For 2022, Part 3
As we close 2022, I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of wisdom, truth, and love. Having previously covered wisdom and truth, I turn this week to love. Love If asked to name the opposite of love, I would say isolation. Isolation goes against the natural order of things. Naturalist John Muir (1838-1914) noted, “When we …
Closing Thoughts for 2022, Part 2
As we close 2022, I reflect on the meaning of Wisdom, Truth, and Love as preludes to offering a new approach to expanding joy and meaning in our lives. Having previously covered wisdom, I turn this week to truth. Truth Facts may be accurate, but the ultimate truth lies beyond facts. It is obvious from …
Closing Thoughts For 2022, Part 1
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on today’s social/cultural environment in the context of living a meaningful and joyful life. On the surface, it often appears incompatible. The wisdom of our elders seems to have escaped us. Truth has become relativistic and unmoored. We’ve sacrificed the love of our fellow citizens for our own increasingly narrow agendas. …
“Younger Than That Now”
In 1964, at age 23, Bob Dylan recorded “My Back Pages.” The song’s refrain caught my attention the first time I heard it! “Ah, but I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.” I was never sure what it meant. But lately, it’s becoming clear. Dylan wrote protest anthems that helped define …
Courage
What did you want to be when you grew up? How did that turn out? I have always dreamed of being a performance artist. X never got that square! John Lennon observed, "Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans." That's pretty close to the mark! Most of us find ourselves in careers …
Reality
Our two-year-old Granddaughter recently asked her mom, "What is reality?" We’re not sure where that came from, but it's a profound question for a 2-year-old or anyone else for that matter to ask. The quick answer might be reality is everything we experience. But what about things that are beyond sensory experience? Mysticism is a …
The Quickening
"The quickening" is an ancient term signifying the beginning of life, the first time an expectant mother feels her baby's kick. Modern technological advances have shifted the definition of life's beginning closer to the time of conception. Today, a new life is sometimes defined in terms of "viability," when a developing fetus can survive independently …
Out Of My Mind
Can you be free of your mind whenever you want? "I'm depressed!" "I'm stressed out!" "I'm upset!" Sound familiar? Let's step back for a moment and ask a simple question: Who is the I? People have pondered this question for thousands of years. "I" is usually assumed to be a product of thought, but this …
Happiness and Hard Times
I started kindergarten in the autumn of 1960. One of the first group activities our class of 30+ students learned was "duck and cover!" When the school siren sounded, we were taught to quickly get up, form a single file line, and move out of the classroom to the school's basement. There we would crouch …
Towards A Life Well-Lived 