MY BLOG

It is a marvel to exist at all, The Beach Boys Happy New You! The hungry ghosts of our culture are driving us apart; driven mad with insatiable desire, and absolutely convinced that the endless search for validation, purpose, acceptance, meaning, and worthiness is a material game. The struggle to define ourselves against something or someone else has made us territorial, jealous, and selfish creatures. Although our claws and teeth are manicured and whitened, our ruthlessness

No two breaths are identical, and Jon Lucien May peace be with you, dear friend. As we enter into the final days of the calendar year, it is an auspicious time to reflect on why, if, and how we are connecting with the deep drives of our being. In our constantly whirring world of information, communication, and connectivity we are bombarded with many influencing forces that can steer us from the deep knowing that resides within us already. Choosing to cultivate any form of pra

Keep going, Chubby Checker The tv says to "fear the walking dead" But what frightens me are not insatiable folks already dead. More unsettling are people alive and well driven mad by cravings and desires asleep to their own awareness, contentment, and the power of gratitude. We have a three pound supercomputer in between our ears; processing power and an organic neural network resembling the cosmos itself. We spend our time preening our self-image, amassing self-esteem throug

Porcupine's Dilemma, and Bob Dylan Well met, my dear companion, As we round the final curve of this calendar year, may we remember to be gentle as we move along. All too often, our busy lives have us moving at lightning speed. Obligations, responsibilities, and the multitude of choices we make whiz by before we appreciate the impact of our actions on each other. As we approach the next solstice, may we pause for reflection and remember the porcupine's dilemma offered by Schop

James Baldwin, Consumer Culture, and The Human Beinz May peace be with you, This precious vital gift of life is incredibly fragile and fleeting. Although we are largely averse to admit it, none of us know when our last moments on this planet will be. So much of life comes down to molecular forces; the electrical charges that keep our heart beating, the amino acids and vitamins that exchange across cell walls, and the cell membranes themselves that hold our bodies together, an

What is an I anyway? Ramases Giant swaths of space covered by gas clouds coalesce under intense pressure form explosive balls of fission illuminating all directions over sometimes billions of years, and you are in a hurry to become something or someone? Molecules formed over eons converge and accrete collisions create an orbit gravity pulls together dense collections by chance some form of materials resembles life, and our self-worth, belonging, or value is something we must

Offering to the Ancestors, The Happenings Dear ancestors, May we live our lives appreciating the gifts that your actions have given us. Our lives are echoes of your decisions. May we hold your flaws and virtues, triumphs and errors, in equal light. Your search for truth, understanding, dignity, and comfort also came with confusion, judgment, injustice, and grave inequity. The learning, growing, questioning, and discovering our shared humanity is our real inheritance. May we l

The Universal Process, King Crimson Nosce Te Ipsum (Know Thyself) It is startling that wisdom, compassion, honesty, and integrity are rare jewels gathering dust in the rapid-fire age of hustle culture. Genuine concern for the well-being of our own life and the lives of those around us greatly endangered in the dominant paradigm of ruthless competition, one-up-man-ship, spiritual materialism, cognitive dissonance. The sum total of human activity and the flow of the universal p

New website, The Chosen Few May the well of steady wisdom be full and free flowing within you. No long diatribe, this week. Only a simple reflection. At a time when social and economic life are all intertwined around staying informed and relevant cultivating a life that is rooted in universal, timeless, and cosmic truths underlying all aspects of history (human or otherwise) seems arcane. However, through grace or folly I have found myself captivated by the most ancient endea

Dignity, The Boston Tea Party Greetings and salutations earth rider, What do we carry for the whole of our lives? Our success and failures, our hopes, our fears, and all our desires are lost treasures only we ourselves prize and cling to. We can no more carry them into the beyond than our memories of days gone by. Our deeds are washed away by the passing storms and seasons of history. Our names are lost utterances unless kept alive by those who remember us. The flame of our l

Listen, The Equatics Dear reader, may this message find you in good health, with ease of mind and heart. To be human is to be a rough stone smoothed by the river of cause and effect. All of us, in our own way, must pass through all manner of experiences that reveal the basic dignity that lives and moves through all things. The opportunity to enjoy pleasure, to revel in what nourishes us, and to connect with what urges us to stand openly in the presence of the infinite cosmic

Solutions, Swami Vivekananda, and Art We are all uniquely formulated expressions of cosmic forces, and thus we are going to experience different ways of connecting to the intelligence that flows through us. We have a global and historical culture that is founded on separateness to the degree that we are separate from our own way of experiencing our life. We are deeply embedded with the idea that only certain groups or individuals will have exclusive access to the wisdom, tool

Carl Sagan, The Buddha, Ice May we be awake to our own nature, All human beings, all living beings, on this planet arise from the same conditions. We are all powered by the energy of this local solar system. Our molecules all mix with those that have been on this planet for billions of years, and came into being billions of years before. Our lives are all fleeting, brief, and ephemeral expressions of an unknowable and unseen collection of forces that hum along to a tune that