Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
There is a Chinese saying that goes: “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody .” Humans are inherently social species. We have survived and thrived because we take care of one another and generosity is, … Continue reading The Art of Being Happy
On Mondays I attend a weekly AA meeting at the Snohomish County Jail. Some of the inmates who attend these meetings are looking at long prison sentences. Recently a young 23-year-old shared that he’d reached a 20-year plea deal on a murder conviction that would soon send him to prison. He wanted the others in the group to know that because of the program he … Continue reading Contented Confinement
As Marsha and I were unpacking a box of keepsakes recently I came upon a poem my brother Kevin had given me in 1974: The Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson. The Jesuit, JFX O’Conor, describes the poem like this: “The name is strange. It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But … Continue reading A Keepsake from Kevin
These are hard times to pay attention to politics. With all the anger, madness and discord in the air, it’s like our ship of state is sinking and we’re left to find our own lifeboats. It’s easy to think we’re the first people ever to have known times like these. Of course, we’re not. Think back to the time of the Great Depression when anger, … Continue reading Laughing Our Way Forward