Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Wrong Lessons
Monday, October 20, 2025
Technology
I'm wondering...about technology and the displacement of manual labor. When you look across time, not really a new thing.
The implications of that displacement only seem to be growing and sometimes this dynamic seems to outpace the implications. It seems clear that there are more than we know or are prepared to handle.
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Equanimity
The word “compassion” comes from the Latin roots com and pati which mean “to suffer with.” We add the suffering of others to our own, a gift at the heart of being human. How can we be moved by the sorrows of others without becoming flooded, drained, or burned out?
To sustain compassion, we need equanimity, a kind of inner shock absorber between the core of your being and whatever is passing through awareness.… With equanimity, you can feel the pain of others without being swept away by it—which helps you open to it even more fully.…
As you face the enormity of the suffering in this world, you might feel flooded with a sense of despair at the impossibility of ever doing enough. If this happens, it can help to take some kind of action, since action eases despair.…
Think about the people in your life, including those you don’t know well. Could you make a difference to someone? Seemingly little things can be very touching. Consider humanity in general as well as nonhuman animals, and see if something is calling to you. Not to burden you, but to push back against helplessness and despair.…
Also, take some time to reflect on what you have already done to help others and on what you are currently doing. Imagine how all this has rippled out into the world in ways seen and unseen. The truth of what you have given rests alongside the truth that there is still so much suffering, and knowing the one will help your heart stay open to the other.
-- Rick Hanson
Saturday, October 18, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
It’s often less satisfying after little effort.
Independence is often less than it’s cracked up to be.
Like it or not, we need each other.
What is time anyway?
Friday, October 17, 2025
The Smile of Innocence
'Poem for the week' -- "The Smile of Innocence":
There is a smile of bitter scorn,
Which curls the lip, which lights the eye;
There is a smile in beauty’s morn,
Just rising o’er the midnight sky.
There is a smile of youthful joy,
When Hope’s bright star’s the transient guest;
There is a smile of placid age,
Like sunset on the billow’s breast.
There is a smile, the maniac’s smile,
Which lights the void which reason leaves,
And, like the sunshine through a cloud,
Throws shadows o’er the song she weaves.
There is a smile of love, of hope,
Which shines a meteor through life’s gloom;
And there’s a smile, Religion’s smile,
Which lights the weary to the tomb.
There is a smile, an angel’s smile,
That sainted souls behind them leave;
There is a smile that shines through toil,
And warms the bosom though in grief;
And there’s a smile on Nature’s face,
When Evening spreads her shades around;
A pensive smile when twinkling stars
Are glimmering through the vast profound.
But there’s a smile, ’tis sweeter still,
’Tis one far dearer to my soul;
It is a smile which angels might
Upon their brightest list enroll.
It is the smile of innocence,
Of sleeping infancy’s light dream;
Like lightning on a summer’s eve,
It sheds a soft and pensive gleam.
It dances round the dimpled cheek,
And tells of happiness within;
It smiles what it can never speak,—
A human heart devoid of sin.
-- Lucretia Maria Davidson
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Sedona & Page AZ
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Listen To What It Has To Say
You will never be ale to escape from you heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Perception of a Problem
The perception of a problem can be as bad as the problem itself.
-- Nathaniel Persily
Monday, October 13, 2025
Rhythms
I've noticed…that it’s nearly impossible (for me) to maintain rhythms in life perpetually, almost as if most rhythms need to be broken now and then — but initiating rhythms in life also seem very important.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
God's Power Is Not Dominion
Only very gradually does human consciousness come to a selfless use of power, the sharing of power, or even a benevolent use of power—in church, politics, or families.
God’s power is not domination, threat, or coercion. All divine power is shared power and the letting go of autonomous power ft.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, October 11, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
Friday, October 10, 2025
In Reality
From a week ago:
Thursday, October 09, 2025
Sickness
Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Tuesday, October 07, 2025
How Long It Takes
In most things, success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
Monday, October 06, 2025
Plural
Ever noticed…that everything in the Lord’s prayer is plural?
It seems like most of recent-era evangelical Christianity has never noticed that…at least in the political context.
Yesterday's post speaks amazingly well to this neglected notion of our sense of community.
Sunday, October 05, 2025
Saturday, October 04, 2025
4 Observations (from Others)
Often times it is the fear of being found out or the actual experience of being found out that alerts us to what lies beneath. It actually places us on the path of self-discovery.
-- Ruth Haley Barton
It is in the process of embracing our imperfections that we find our truest gifts: courage, compassion, and connection.
Prior 4 Observations (from Others).
Friday, October 03, 2025
On The Lighter Side: Same Playbook
Thursday, October 02, 2025
Pain & Truth
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Enlarge The Box
Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.
-- Rosamund and Benjamin Zander
Monday, September 29, 2025
What I’m Wondering About
I’m wondering…what I’m wondering about and why.
Every 3rd Monday (unless something comes up on a Monday), I post something about what I’m wondering about. Usually, it’s about a ‘why’ or an ‘about’.
Why does this (or that) happen?
What is this (or that) about?
Today, I’m wondering about why the things that make my list…make my list in the first place. Isn’t something influencing that most of the time?
Or, what about this — why does it seem like I don’t wonder about certain things (at all)?
Surely, there have to be some implications here (if not ramifications)….
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Beauty, Gratitude, and the Divine
Saturday, September 27, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
Friday, September 26, 2025
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Stillness and Sanctuary
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Looking
When is the last time you looked up for even a few minutes at a cloudless night sky?
When is the last time you looked endlessly at that portal in your hands?
Which do you feel better serves your needs?
I’m doing an experiment. Like everyone else (I’m assuming), I don’t think I am addicted to one form of social media or another. But, I am noticing the ease with which I rotate back to Instagram, for example, just to see the latest…skuttlebutt or anything else that might be entertaining.
I’ve decided to test myself a little bit on this by deleting the Instagram app on my phone. What will I feel when I have that extra minute? Or, what will I feel in the evening when I’m too tired to do anything else, but am not ready for bed? If I don’t have that to turn to (because it is so easy), what will I turn to? What if I have simply deluded myself into thinking that I’m not into something more than I think I am?
I know there is something psychologically appealing about keeping track of controversy. It feeds something in us. Perhaps, we think we’re more in control of something, if we’re aware of it. But, it’s hard not to notice how easy it is to go looking for it as well.
Besides how it feels, what does it really feed? Is that something constructive or good or is that something else?
I know myself well enough that sometimes I have to build in things to check myself.
At the very least, I know that what I feel, based on what I’m looking at, can be quite different things (night sky versus social media, etc.). I think I need to find out if what I’m looking at is creating something in me that I’m not aware of.
Maybe you’ve already performed an experiment like this — what did you discover?
Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Monday, September 22, 2025
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Saturday, September 20, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
Friday, September 19, 2025
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Demonization
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Your Instincts
I learned you have to push away the demand people’s expectations by believing in your instincts.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Monday, September 15, 2025
Musculature for Grief
Ever noticed…how little musculature we have as a society for grief?
And, we can’t figure out why we’re so anxious….Sunday, September 14, 2025
Through Friendships
It was only later, through friendships with Christian men and women who truly embody the spirit of understanding and compassion of Jesus, that I have been able to touch the depths of Christianity.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Saturday, September 13, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
Prayer, for me, is increasingly like on-going dialogue.
Good power seems to be far less something that you have than it is something you access.
Ultimately, we have to accept that healing is something we can't rush.
In a number of ways, isn’t a warrior mentality primarily juvenile in nature (if not in substance)?
Friday, September 12, 2025
Options for the future
We stood on the beach skipping stones into Lake Michigan, the Beach House Blowout at our backs. A steady wind in our faces, rolling waves singing across the pebbled apron at Indiana Dunes State Park.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Our Conscience
My longer posts each week seem to rotate between something happening in the world around us (more often political stuff lately) and something more sublime (why do we have to force ourselves away from our media-diet of controversy (which we say we hate, but do we really? — after all, we all know by now that we actively perpetuate it…). Given that cadence, I guess it's time for...the former (ugh).
Honestly, I've not been immune from what the sucking-us-down has been doing to all of us. It does, ironically, seem conspiratorial (conspiring against us). How do we engage, and not stick our head in the sand (pretending what is happening isn't), without becoming incapacitated by it all?
The range and depth of issues is confounding; impossible to both enumerate or itemize. Why should we even have to? But, what happens if we don't (maybe the exact opposite of what we tend to think; but, who knows?)?
It’s like watching a ship take on water. But, you feel it a little differently if you’re on that ship. You feel stupid, angry, and most of all…helpless. “Do something!” we scream (at ourselves in the mirror). We know panic doesn’t help, but we’re increasingly desperate for an effective alternative. And, if we’re honest, we all have this sinking feeling that we’re aiding-and-abetting things somehow.
How does one, then, resist what truly needs to be resisted? We don’t know how, in part, because we still haven’t collectively re-agreed on the what. So, what should be resisted? We need a better answer than the easy one of simply saying, “the other side”.
We have to find out though. We must find a way to identify it. The ship is going down and we’re going with it. Our very survival is being pressed now into differentiating between a basic understanding of what is good and bad and what is being co-opted as being so (yet another horrifying example here…yes, go ahead, add 1 more thing to the controversy column). In other words, we are having to rediscover what really is at the core of our individual and collective conscience. Perhaps the silver-lining is that this is long overdue...and is now happening (or starting to). What do we really want collectively? What do we really need collectively?
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Loyalty To
Tuesday, September 09, 2025
Smartest Person In The Room
The smartest person in the room, I’ve learned, is usually the person who knows how to tap into the intelligence of every person in the room.
-- Scott Kelly
Monday, September 08, 2025
AI
I’m wondering…about AI — mostly about where meaning and morality fits in (or doesn’t).
Just because LLM’s can make new connections to an unfathomable degree and at an unprecedented rate doesn’t mean that they're real (or substantive). None of this happens without a rate of an investment that we’ve never seen before. Investment is predicated on the possibility of return. Perhaps we need to evaluate more carefully what that return actually is — we are, after all, funding this through our societal choices.
Too often, we throw up our hands on such things and say, in effect, “but what can we do about it?” Well, other societies aren’t caving in as easily. They are doing something about it, by getting at the values they have as a group. So, why aren’t we?
Just because you can make money at something, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes I wonder how much our love of money has stunted our growth and development as a society (no to mention as individuals).
Many of our leaders have just caved in to our appetite for consumption, regardless of the implications. Given the amount of money involved now, is AI just one more example?
Sunday, September 07, 2025
Small, Dark, and Negligible
Saturday, September 06, 2025
4 Observations (from Others)
Wealth Transfer
Friday, September 05, 2025
Thursday, September 04, 2025
Stars / Love \ God
I looked up early this morning at the still nighting sky.
The stars were stunning.
I was reminded that they always are and that the only thing that really changes is my perception of them. They're sitting there all the time; shining or doing their thing (whatever that is).
Invariably now, when I put myself in a position to see them and then contemplate their significance, my thoughts drift towards…love. Is that cultural conditioning? Or, is that something innately existential? Many have debated the question over time. So, if nothing else, I'm not the first to wonder about it (not to mention what really changes whatever I end up concluding?).
Something (Someone?) put such things in place, even as the nature of their 'place' is always evolving. The span of time involved so far exceeds both my experience and understanding of it, my conclusions are somewhat irrelevant (at least on that scale). It makes a lot of sense (even beyond rationality) to me that such a thing means something. The traditions of understanding that nature is the primal representation of spirituality is not hard for me to accept (even if I tend to forget it at times).
Further, the connection between nature and that Being described as love does not feel inappropriate or even a stretch. It would seem that Being would have a motive when creating something beautiful — true at both human and divine levels, isn't it? A motive to do that would be what we might characterize as...loving. The meaning involved would seem to necessitate communication; portrayal, offering, invitation, acceptance.
Doesn't nature seem to do this? Obviously, there are deviations from a constant state of this (how else can you fit things like earthquakes or other 'natural' disasters into this equation of understanding?). But, the overall pattern seems to be beauty, harmony, inter-relatedness, dependence, care, respect, work, enjoyment...and on and on. This all could be described in a variety of ways (and has been), but it holds water for me to also describe it as love.
I'm going to a funeral today. Why (am I going)?
I suspect it is related to all this because the life lived, in the context above, was caught up in the meaning of this beauty. He tried to capture it. He wanted to embody it. Many benefitted because of it; we were drawn into each of the three dimensions I'm describing here. Nature, love, God. I want to honor that and the person who was involved and who lives on, despite his physical passing.
Perhaps my body lifted my head this morning (usually I'm looking down, trying to avoid falling in the dark). Perhaps it said something like, see what persists (and surrounds) in all the living and dying we do on this earth. Notice it. Appreciate it. Perpetuate it.
Nature does it, in my opinion, because it represents Something (God) who does it, so that we can do it, too.
Wednesday, September 03, 2025
Tuesday, September 02, 2025
The Good Life
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.
-- Carl Rogers
Monday, September 01, 2025
Sunday, August 31, 2025
3 Ways Seeking ‘Awe’ Is The Secret To A Sharper Mind—By A Psychologist
Imagine standing at the edge of a vast canyon, gazing at the endless expanse of stars in the night sky or hearing a piece of music that moves you to tears. In these moments, something remarkable happens—you feel humbled and uplifted. This powerful emotion, known as “awe” has the ability to shift your perspective and awaken a sense of wonder about life itself.
Fortunately, awe is not only reserved for life’s grand events. It can be found in the mundane, like in the kindness of a stranger or the laughter of a loved one.
As Dacher Keltner suggests in his book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, this emotion offers far more than a pleasant, fleeting experience—it holds the potential to profoundly shape our mental and physical well-being.
What you might not realize is that awe also brings significant cognitive benefits that can positively impact your brain function and how you interact with the world. From enhancing creativity to improving decision-making, awe has the unique ability to sharpen our minds and transform the way we think. Continue here….
-- Mark Travers
Saturday, August 30, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
When will we again see that our personal well-being is only as good as our collective well-being — that we’re only in this together?
Correlation & Causation
Friday, August 29, 2025
Soften Into What Is
Thursday, August 28, 2025
“Anything I Want…”
I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States.
-- Donald Trump, this week
In honor of the many freedoms I enjoy, I would like to fly the American flag, like I used to.
However (assuming anyone even noticed), I’m afraid that would be completely misunderstood.. As much as I would like it to be about patriotism, the community I live in would tend to read it, especially right now, as nationalism.
There is a distinction between patriotism and nationalism.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Question Yourself
Question yourself, yes, but don't doubt yourself. There's a difference.
Monday, August 25, 2025
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Sense of Astonishment
Saturday, August 23, 2025
3 Observations & A Question
Sometimes the stories are as important as the truth they represent.
You have to take ownership of your own health — it’s not somebody else’s job.
Whatever happened to the question, "Can you tell me more about that?"?