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?
Sometimes, what I want does fill me
When I was a baby (and by that I mean, I still am), my whole game plan was: I want. I wanna be fed. I want my diaper changed. I want milk. I want water. I want outta my crib. I wanna go potty. I want mama […]
Abandoned church, Chicago
It’s been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Sounds nice, but what does it actually mean? To me, it represents the central place of imperfection in all spiritual practice. It moves us to love the imperfect, because nothing on earth was made with straight lines. If we […]
To realize the all, you only need aware yourself of it. In your individual state, you are not the all, but you are a representation of it. Since the all is ever present, each individual is a symbol of its unlimited nature. The all is you, must be you. For that which is limitless cannot […]
Drift Smoke from North Rim Fires, Grand Canyon
Tawhid doesn’t descend into you. It is to be naughted.
Do you know what this means? I had to read it a few times before I began to understand its implications. The quote is from Rumi, a Persian mystic. ‘Tawhid’ refers to the unitary nature of […]
Time Has Its Uses
The ability to choose is predicated on the existence of time. Without time, there is no need, and no ability, to choose anything. I choose, therefore, to be grateful for time, temporary gift that it is.
Being human also allows me to choose differently. Were I a garden slug, my choices […]
Beauty is lost itself thru contemplation of itself
If you think you’ve advanced in your awareness beyond others, you’ve lost awareness, because you’ve lost humility.
Regarding your progress, the only conclusion you can come to is not to conclude at all.
You cannot keep track of your progress or estimate your time of arrival. There is […]
Could the tree live with even one of its roots missing?
I was peering up at a mountain, Hesperus in the La Plata Range to be exact. Even though this 13,000-foot mountain was gigantic by my reference points it wasn’t even a nugget to the universe, nor even to our solar system, where mountains […]
Bottomless Hole
Some days I think that with all this time on the planet, I should be farther along than I am. I think if I had 10 times as much money and success, my ego would still be telling me that I need more, want more, should have more.
I still tell myself that […]
This would be your cubicle
The title of my latest book is The Dirt: The Journey of a Cowboy Mystic. We have cowboy poets. Why not cowboy mystics? After all, the one essential quality of the mystic path is that it chooses you as much as you choose it. No one can really set […]
Nothing Lasts in Time
At times, I wished I lived in other times, earlier times. To relive a beautiful moment, to revisit an earlier period in a civilization I’ve come to revere. Other times, I wished I lived in later times, leapfrogging all the disease and disorder and war.
We believe we learn from the […]