These short reflections and insights range in length from twitter-length to short essays. They’re free, so what’ve you got to lose but a few moments?
A reflection of you?
The human brain, it is said, contains 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, though I don’t imagine anyone’s ever tried to count them one-by-one. Each neuron is also said to have about 10,000 connections to its sister nerve cells. Multiply 10,000 times 100 billion, and you end up with a very large […]
Lo
Lonely places can bring bliss
Sometimes I think I’d be lonely without my loneliness to keep me company. When you spend a good deal of time by yourself in pursuit of sole endeavors, there isn’t often a voice telling you you’re alright, and doing the right thing. But there may be one telling you that you’re […]
Silence Reigns Here
And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a […]
On the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, across gravel roads 39 miles from Jacob Lake, I arrive at Parissawampitts Point, a vista point just west of the National Park. The forecast calls for rain over several days. The rim cools down, devoid of people in its early October mien near the NPS closing point of the […]
A typical day on Navajo Lake
We all know what a Likert scale even if we didn’t know it was invented by a dude named Likert. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is very likely and 1 is very unlikely, how likely are you to continue reading this post? Alright, I know it’s […]
End of November. I battle the inner and outer seclusion I encounter in this conurbation of nine million Chicagoans. I call no one. No one calls me. Loneliness seems my night shift. I work out at the gym to battle the isolation.
At the health club, I allow the spaceship bank of big screen TV’s to […]
A nation rose up from the ashes of the Holocaust, founded upon the ideal of freedom. Its people sought escape from centuries of oppression, to become a bastion of democracy, a forum for the exchange of ideas, and a place for multicultural expression.
Yet in its founding, there was a problem: there were others living on […]
Everyone has a role. I’ve spent most of life feeling like I didn’t belong. I’ve never really felt as if I had a place in the world. I feel at home on the earth, trolling the bellies of its canyons and clinging to the shoulders of its mountains, trekking out along the fingers of land […]
a few of the Needles
I live near the mountains, yet I prefer the desert. There’s a feeling that the desert gives. What would the Chinese say about my chi, my energy, the energy to which I’m drawn?
Canyonlands covers over 500 square miles of desert. Since trees grow there – mostly pinion and juniper […]
“…nature strives for adequacy, not perfection.”
Catch me, if you can
Life is to be lived, rather than perfected. I’ve spent a good deal of my life not trying to do certain things — take certain risks — because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do them perfectly. But nature strives for adequacy, […]