To be one’s authentic self, one first needs to appreciate the joyful consequence of simply being, shedding all important sounding concepts, represented in our language by words such as “meaning” and “purpose,” words that mislead the thinking mind’s egoic self,…
The Surreal thing
January 2, 2024 It is surreal to consider that it was just one year ago I started my Parkinson’s comeback. Much has changed in the past 12 months as my Parkinson’s “progressed,” a word ordinarily reserved for positive characterizations. Although…
2023’s final sun.
December 31, 2033 It is odd – according to common thinking – that as each year gets more difficult for me, my happiness and sense of contentment proportionately grow greater as well. There are many reasons for this, but I…
Twighlight
12/25/2023 Christmas Like most people, my wife and I have spent much of our 32-year marriage too busy to notice time slip away. One clear morning, we woke up as sixty-year-olds, with used-to-be kids living much as we had when…
The next hill
December 4, 2023 When I go hiking or just a walk around the neighborhood, I rarely think about traversing the hill at the end. There is nothing to gain by ruminating about how it will be painful and prolonged. Instead,…
Defining love
November 12, 2023 Children are born with intact awareness and understanding of love’s miracle of simplicity. It is only society’s enculturation that needlessly complicates a comprehension of perhaps life’s most fundamental truth—just as essential to evolving beyond western culture’s spiritual…
Roll out
October 20, 2023 Why roll a book out at a restaurant? Why not a bookstore, or library, or any place where there was not an existential threat of BBQ sauce saturation? Those who know me are deeply aware of my…
Rainbow
October 16, 2023 I first saw this rainbow on my way home from the boat. What struck me as curious was the apparent grace with which it altered its fundamental radiant message. First seeing it framing a wooded area, the…
Life changing
October 12, 2017 Six short years ago, Greg and I were partaking in some “shark repellent,” the night before we departed on a plane to make the 18-hour boat ride to Guadeloupe Island, Mexico to cage dive with Great White…
Life’s eternal bargain
My first indication of a visiting vessel was the coffee-grinder-like sound of a bow thruster. My passengers—a former Recon Marine father and his 37-year-old son—helped the newcomers tie up, and before long, the steady beat of conversation drifted through my boat’s…