As I prepare to greet my 62nd new year, I want to acknowledge a couple of spiritual gifts that life delivered to me this past year. This year has been among the most challenging, and spiritually eventful, periods of my life. Training for Cycle Oregon 2016, and, ultimately, participating in Read more…
In this time when the anti-Christ seems to rule the United States, and when heartless terrorists and politicians victimize our most innocent of beings, human and animal, it can be difficult to feel the miracle of life that is constantly with us. Yet, to not have that experience, is to Read more…
. The intersection of family history and a birth in November of 1955 has created some interesting, and, at times, amazing stories for me. My Uncle Worth died in February of 1955, 9 months in advance of my own birth. His photo is included here. He was married to a Read more…
As I lie here on our driveway, and pet and caress our cat Patches, I marvel at the mystery of love and connection, and the diversity of life that expresses it, each in its own unique way. I also reflect on the life, and the death, of my friend. As Read more…
I have had the privilege and challenge of going through and sorting a lifetime worth of writings and papers from my parents, and from myself. After reading some of my mother’s personal writings, I was struck by the pain that she experienced remaining married to my father. He was not Read more…
I have had an anxiety reaction recently. This is difficult to talk about, as I have always considered myself such a “together” person, especially since I began conscientiously practicing recovery from alcoholism in 1987. Right now, I have a tight throat, and I am a bit dizzy, and easily irritated Read more…
Merry Christmas to all, and may we all have a more enlightened New Year, sans TREASON (Trump Related Extreme Anxiety Striking Our Nation). What can I say that has not already been said? A selfish, spiritually and socially corrupt, dangerous, sad, and pathetic excuse for a human being is now Read more…
NRA and the politicians who do not act to reduce the proliferation of automatic weapons are sponsors of national terrorism. Just how many automatic weapons does it take to make America’s gun owners feel safe? It is just that many weapons that it takes to make America unhealthy, insane, Read more…
NRA (No Reasonable Alternatives) How much is enough, American male? This article, though not quite up to date, carries some painful truths about masculinity, entrenched power, the #metoo movement, and gun violence. Our national disgrace seems to arise from Toxic Masculinity, a topic that does not get the press it Read more…
It was June 22, 1987, and I was hiking up to Larch Mountain, a beautiful peak that overlooks the Columbia River valley. From its elevated vantage point it oversees all of the major mountain peaks of the area. In the ancient times, I was to learn several years later, this Read more…
I am serving up a little vitriolic monologue today. “Dirt” bags come in many forms, and not all are attached to vacuum cleaners. Rep. Nunes certainly has earned the Dirt-Bag Award of the Year, so far. An informed observer might think that Devin Nunes himself is colluding with the Read more…
Please Ignore, if you must, listen with your heart, if you can trust! Our POTU$ has unleashed more hatred and anxiety than any president in recent memory. Congratulations to the Commander of Thieves (oops, I think that I mean Commander-in-Chief). TREASON: Trump Related Extreme Anxiety Stalks Our Nation Read more…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYlwF0jP5-w&feature=share Remember those late night television commercials in the 1960’s and 1970’s, where Tom Peterson would come on the air, and knock on the inside of the screen of our TV’s, yelling “WAKE UP! WAKE UP!!” ? This is John Lennon’s equivalent in song, without the sales pitch to buy Read more…
We visited Mom and Dad’s grave site today for the first time since dad’s death. (Rocky and Peaches are buried with them, too). One of Dad’s favorite expressions about people who get ignored, rejected or neglected was that “he got the bum’s rush”. His dementia in the last years of Read more…
I get questioned from time to time about why I need to write about doing personal inventory and remaining “mindful” around the impact of Toxic masculinity upon my life, and upon the human race in general. Some perceive that I must have anger or hatred motivating me for “attacking” our Read more…
I am deeply disturbed by the present developments within our shared world, within my individual and our collective human consciousness, and the points of connection between the self and other, through language, religion, and philosophies that create oppression, repression, and personal and social disease. Starting within myself, I have seen Read more…
I never chose this uneven life path of recovery from trauma, life chose it for me. I choose how to deal with the sights along the way, however. The amygdala in our brains under duress from trauma creates new paths, leading in unhealthy directions, when these issues that arise Read more…
Belief, faith and irrationality need not travel together as companions hopelessly chained together on the road to “salvation”. Evangelicals have a strong tendency to conform to worn out modes of thought and understanding, and are quite slow, as a religious culture, to adapt to the awakenings that are happening in Read more…
Brain Damage (Written by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd) The lunatic is on the grass. The lunatic is on the grass. Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs. Got to keep the loonies on the path. The lunatic is in the hall. The lunatics are in my hall. Read more…
After the recent death of my father, on September 16th, I have had the privilege and challenge of going through and sorting a lifetime worth of writings and papers from my parents, and from myself. After reading some of my mother’s personal writings, I was struck by the pain that Read more…