The mourning doves are louder than during previous springs, their cooing in search of a mate replacing the cackle-screech of the Starlings of years gone by. We have lived in the same house for 34 years, the Starlings, a calming…
Discernment
Recently, I learned of two tragedies that made me consider life from a different perspective. One involved a man who faced an impossible decision after a fall, a result of a vertigo-induced condition caused by successful chemotherapy. The other tragedy…
Life’s Masterpiece
Life’s only certainty might be that spiritual growth is not linear. Instead, it revisits the past like an infinity symbol on its side, exposing long regression periods. I had been floundering somewhere in the far circle of infinity’s ignorance for…
View from the shadows
A child is not born judging others, still, society’s pernicious labeling impacts a toddler’s life almost immediately. The child, guilty only of compliance, often reaches adulthood with a dualistic interpretation of the world, a simplistic understanding of all things dark…
Powerful words.
Yesterday, with the welcome surprise of a burst of creative energy, I went grocery shopping. Unabashedly wearing my tell of a giant dopey smile, I started off in the produce section, my shuffling gait drawing the gaze of curious onlookers.…
The authenticity of being
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,…