Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
“The longer you look back, the farther you can look forward.” ~ Winston Churchill During these times when democracies around the world have been under attack by angry, xenophobic extremists my political disposition has become cynical and depressed. While political fires rage all around me I’ve found myself strangely disengaged, treating it all like bothersome background noise. What kind of citizen am I when I refuse … Continue reading Finding Our Finest Hour
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ~ Carl Jung For the past two months I’ve been battling kidney stones. Ugh. It has felt very much like living in the presence of constant shadow. There’s been no time in the past 50 years when I’ve been so sedentary. I’ve had nothing to distract me and have … Continue reading My Inscrutable Shadow
A while back I introduced you to the poetry of my niece who writes under the pen name, Otissus. She possess the gift found in so many good poets of being able to render into verse her deepest life experiences. Here she shares a poem on vocation, followed by a prose reflection. In her words, “Perhaps we could call it, a Metapoetic? The goal is … Continue reading Vocation (by Otissus)
I recently visited my friend Joe Thomas in Mobile, Alabama. It was my first trip away from the Northwest in three years and I was really looking forward to it. Joe and I go back more than fifty years and when we do get together we unabashedly indulge our Three Great Pleasures: Food Football Fellowship Now with each passing year I’m ever more grateful to … Continue reading A Master Class In Living In The Moment
“If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” These questions posed by Rabbi Hillel have tripped me up more than a time to two in my life. In fact, I can think of few questions that are as vexing. My sense of self, who I think I am, is … Continue reading The Rabbi’s Question