Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
[This is an edited version of the post, “A Thoughtful Heart,” originally published February 27, 2016.] L “A heart weary of hate cannot learn to love.” I came upon this quote, credited to a Russian poet, in a New York Times article written by Mikhail Shishkin, “How Russians Lost the War.” He was decrying the manner in which the Russian authorities were ratcheting up … Continue reading Seeing the World with Clear Eyes
Yet again, death has struck a member of my family — my cousin Amy, at 46. Death has visited our family all too frequently and all too early. My father died at 45, brother Steve at 59, brother Kevin at 62. We are a family of unfinished stories. Death leaves its mark when it comes unexpected and early. So many unspoken words So many unsung … Continue reading Passings and Epilogues
My stumbling block in early life was that I didn’t like living with questions. Not at all. In my world answers were the thing. Whether they were right or not was, to me, not the most important thing. What counted was that I had an answer to every question. All that changed one night in 1985 while sharing a bowl of kung pao … Continue reading A Path to Serenity
“Doubt grows with knowledge.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Today we hear many voices speak with the ring of dogmatic certainty, where the ugliest of ugly thoughts are hurled out to every time zone. I find myself asking, how can so many be so sure of so much? Socrates once observed, “I know that I don’t know. But you don’t know what you don’t know and … Continue reading When Doubt is an Ally
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ― C.S. Lewis A parent’s relationship to pain cannot help but be passed on to their children. Like many of you, my mother’s complicated relationship with pain was passed on to me. Here … Continue reading Pain