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?
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 you? To me, it represents the central place of imperfection in all spiritual practice. It gives us permission us to love the imperfect, because nothing on earth was made with […]
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 microcosm 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. To be aware is to suspend judgment. It is not even to be aware […]
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, and as I stood miles from its base, the peak took up increasing fractions of the sky. It occurred to me that even though this 13,000 foot […]
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 […]
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 […]
On the Edge, Living on Air, Oldest on Earth
Yale called them the Undying Lands, a term borrowed from Tolkien. To Yale, the Undying Lands were in southeast Utah, the land of his mysterious origins. We never did find out much about his beginnings. As a child, he went from foster home to foster […]
What’s at the End of Your Rainbow?
In the 12-stage journey of the hero popularized by scholars such as Joseph Campbell, writers such as Chris Vogler, and the imminent, if dead, psychiatrist, Carl Jung, the hero undergoes many hardships on her way to psychological transformation.
Like Sarah Connor in the Terminator series, she may begin […]