For regular readers who want to see the most recent added entry without searching through the entire following page, go to the blog.
Let yourself get a little lost that you might discover what you could never imagine.
Tracer Bullets Over Your Life-Path
Following your life-path is no lockstep march of military discipline. It is a dodging, ducking, diving, desperate tumbling scramble under tracer bullets though smoke and fire and shell craters. For part of your life it is necessary to do some reconnaissance, to try this and probe that, to lay low for a while, even to retreat and regroup on occasion. But eventually comes a time to run forward, to run like your very soul depends on it, to run in that direction you know is yours,…..
Machine Mirrors Excerpt:
.....The power of information absorption and dissemination through screens has utterly and completely seduced us without our even recognizing it. The eventual impact on what it even means to be a society, a nation, and human is probably not predicable and would not be recognizable if we could predict it. That future impact will be determined by what in our human nature the screens and keyboards unleash. We would do well to look through those virtual windows, and more so, to look into those digital mirrors. Before we become the machines, before the machines change us, perhaps we can at least glimpse what we are. read entire essay
In Need of Meadow
Tangled and obscuring are the forests of our societies,
interactions the grabbing branches,
conversations the ensnaring vines.
Seek a meadow,
seek perspective,
find a spot of sunlight un-shadowed by demands and expectations.
Read all of In Need of Meadow
Fledging of Downy Woodpeckers (link)
Just what the title says. As adorable as it sounds. As exciting and intense as....well...that's up to the reader.
Coyote Creation (Excerpt)
Is the nature of this present temporal world in response to our chosen nature, a reflection of our chosen condition of collapse into ourselves?.......a reflection of us, we elements of the collective consciousness of Eve and Adam, boldly entering into the act of Creation, Creation no longer an external work of divine art, but Creation now part of us and we part of it.
Read all of Coyote Creation
Ripples In Time (Excerpt)
A tiny insect fell dead onto the back of my hand. How inconsequential and promptly of no subsequent consequence that is. But perhaps at a future moment someone is reading about this very insect, its tiny and brief life prompting a thought or boredom or turn of a page, but its influence, like the gravity from the dust of the vaporized planet, extending across dimensions of space and time.
Perhaps we should at least try to peer down the invisible dimension of time, and in so doing glimpse the distant, obscured, but undeniable ripples of our lives. In so doing perhaps we can come to take a little more seriously our decisions and choices, so inconsequential, so momentary, so mundane, and so eternal.
Read all of Ripples In Time
Unnatural Peace
Peace. Within and between. Still unrealistic after all these millennia. But what about the next millennia? Do we not hope that our descendants might individually and collectively experience a little more peace than we? Might it be that it is not our carnal evolutionary development that has made us human, but "human", in the greatest potential of that word, is what we are called to in spite of that family background of survival of the most ruthless.
Read all of Unnatural Peace
Whispering Hope
Excerpt:
.......There is a terrible noise loosed in the world today, the grinding noise of a great machine, the economic machine of consuming possessions, draining busyness, plundering profits, and relentless entertainment.
There is a terrible darkness loosed in the world today, the darkness of shadows cast by the material, the dark shadows of absence of soul and spirit and connection and heart.
The economic systems and political mechanisms that saved the “developed” world from physical hunger and material want have turned on us and begun to devour our planet and our souls.
There is no hope, no worldly hope, as there was no hope when Attila marched, no hope when plague spread, no hope when famine deepened.
There is only Hope, the same Hope of the ages born out of darkest persecutions, the timeless Hope that rises from bloodiest crucifixions. It is Hope individual, not corporate and not societal, Hope ineffable yet eloquent, a Christmas Hope furtively slipping out through the gaps between the crushing weight of sales and trinkets........ Read entire essay
Soul Music I
Outreach musical performance at a community center.
Look at these little kids! Look at their rapt attention. Listen to their applause. They have not yet learned to be bored.
It’s a poor neighborhood. These families have no symphony tickets. But a young mind exposed to something new, a young mind kept open a little longer, a young mind going home to one of these little surrounding homes, may be a little changed by this musical exposure, and a little changed mind can change the world.
Soul Music II Excerpt:
..... Musical instruments, and the musicians that master them, demonstrate the desperate drive that takes the human spirit to any lengths to establish, even if only for the duration of a performance, some connection with another human soul.......read more
Material separation
Excerpt.......
How coldly and lifelessly the material possessors to which we give our souls take from us opportunities for the eternal, chaining our consciousness to that which is disappearing even as we grasp for it........Read entire essay
Judgement Daze
Excerpts:
Never has humanity had such opportunity to judge and critique so many of our fellow humans.
Our media connections offer endless opportunities for judgement, and we greedily gather all of them in,.......
.......“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
One more commandment we blithely ignore..........
........There is good reason those quick to judge pronounce their judgments with scowling visage and down-turned mouth. They know they are next. See entire essay
Contact Eternity
Do not take yourself lightly. Do not underestimate your influence. It can be small, a word here, a touch there, a smile or scowl or blank expression, but that small influence carries on, affecting a life, then another life, then another, then another.
Faith Crisis, Faith Freedom
Ever had a crisis of faith when you had to give up a dearly held belief? I desperately dislike the wrenching torments of such crises, but eventually am inevitably grateful for them, whether addressing faith in a person, an institution, or a belief system.
I’m sure they must afflict any open minded person, anyone willing to learn and grow, anyone questioning and searching. I don’t think real faith has much strength without being exercised by crises of faith.
In a crisis of faith, reality keeps slapping you in the face to wake you up to the fact that a core principle of your beliefs is clearly mistaken. That in turns leads to the real problem.
You are left asking if everything you believe is mistaken.
If your interpretation of that verse or chapter or book or testimony was wrong, that means your interpretation of any other verse or book or testimony might be wrong. How our minds do gymnastics to try to get around that conundrum!
That is perhaps the real basis of many people’s trenchant resistance to gay rights. If people admit any error in their interpretation of scripture and tradition on that subject, then all their beliefs get called into question. No! We cannot tolerate that! We will not tolerate that! It is far less disconcerting to ignore the question and all the rational evidence contradicting our beliefs, it is even better to ignore that whispering of the conscience of our heart, than to cast into doubt our entire foundation of life!
Of course gay rights, and civil rights of every sort, entail such prolonged struggle!
Eventually we are forced to concede that our beliefs are just that, our beliefs. We are fully responsible for them. If faced with incontrovertible evidence that we are wrong, the ensuing audit of our beliefs to determine what else might be wrong is really an audit of our soul, an assay of the state of our spirit.
When the carpet of our beliefs gets pulled out from under us, we can no longer rely on the family and institutional source of those beliefs. Disproving one belief casts all the others into doubt. Horror of horrors, we are forced to accept personal responsibility for what we believe!
The mind and logic and intellect can undo beliefs. But only the heart and soul can allow beliefs to take root. The forced assessment of our beliefs is a forced personal inventory of who we are at the deepest level. Of course we want to avoid that! Of course we shirk that responsibility!
That is why revolutions of liberation, the logical- rational- fact based- and common sense inescapable conclusions that would liberate ethnic groups, racial groups, gender groups, religious groups, and political groups, inevitably lead to a far greater liberation of the people whose beliefs have to be wrenchingly changed in order to accept the other person’s liberation.
The person gaining civil rights is simply finally getting what they always wanted. The person who has to accept the liberation of that other person is being freed, albeit unwillingly, to assess the inherited belief systems that shaped their life and behavior, and thereby freed to sculpt anew their own life foundations.
Let yourself get a little lost that you might discover what you could never imagine.
Tracer Bullets Over Your Life-Path
Following your life-path is no lockstep march of military discipline. It is a dodging, ducking, diving, desperate tumbling scramble under tracer bullets though smoke and fire and shell craters. For part of your life it is necessary to do some reconnaissance, to try this and probe that, to lay low for a while, even to retreat and regroup on occasion. But eventually comes a time to run forward, to run like your very soul depends on it, to run in that direction you know is yours,…..
Machine Mirrors Excerpt:
.....The power of information absorption and dissemination through screens has utterly and completely seduced us without our even recognizing it. The eventual impact on what it even means to be a society, a nation, and human is probably not predicable and would not be recognizable if we could predict it. That future impact will be determined by what in our human nature the screens and keyboards unleash. We would do well to look through those virtual windows, and more so, to look into those digital mirrors. Before we become the machines, before the machines change us, perhaps we can at least glimpse what we are. read entire essay
In Need of Meadow
Tangled and obscuring are the forests of our societies,
interactions the grabbing branches,
conversations the ensnaring vines.
Seek a meadow,
seek perspective,
find a spot of sunlight un-shadowed by demands and expectations.
Read all of In Need of Meadow
Fledging of Downy Woodpeckers (link)
Just what the title says. As adorable as it sounds. As exciting and intense as....well...that's up to the reader.
Coyote Creation (Excerpt)
Is the nature of this present temporal world in response to our chosen nature, a reflection of our chosen condition of collapse into ourselves?.......a reflection of us, we elements of the collective consciousness of Eve and Adam, boldly entering into the act of Creation, Creation no longer an external work of divine art, but Creation now part of us and we part of it.
Read all of Coyote Creation
Ripples In Time (Excerpt)
A tiny insect fell dead onto the back of my hand. How inconsequential and promptly of no subsequent consequence that is. But perhaps at a future moment someone is reading about this very insect, its tiny and brief life prompting a thought or boredom or turn of a page, but its influence, like the gravity from the dust of the vaporized planet, extending across dimensions of space and time.
Perhaps we should at least try to peer down the invisible dimension of time, and in so doing glimpse the distant, obscured, but undeniable ripples of our lives. In so doing perhaps we can come to take a little more seriously our decisions and choices, so inconsequential, so momentary, so mundane, and so eternal.
Read all of Ripples In Time
Unnatural Peace
Peace. Within and between. Still unrealistic after all these millennia. But what about the next millennia? Do we not hope that our descendants might individually and collectively experience a little more peace than we? Might it be that it is not our carnal evolutionary development that has made us human, but "human", in the greatest potential of that word, is what we are called to in spite of that family background of survival of the most ruthless.
Read all of Unnatural Peace
Whispering Hope
Excerpt:
.......There is a terrible noise loosed in the world today, the grinding noise of a great machine, the economic machine of consuming possessions, draining busyness, plundering profits, and relentless entertainment.
There is a terrible darkness loosed in the world today, the darkness of shadows cast by the material, the dark shadows of absence of soul and spirit and connection and heart.
The economic systems and political mechanisms that saved the “developed” world from physical hunger and material want have turned on us and begun to devour our planet and our souls.
There is no hope, no worldly hope, as there was no hope when Attila marched, no hope when plague spread, no hope when famine deepened.
There is only Hope, the same Hope of the ages born out of darkest persecutions, the timeless Hope that rises from bloodiest crucifixions. It is Hope individual, not corporate and not societal, Hope ineffable yet eloquent, a Christmas Hope furtively slipping out through the gaps between the crushing weight of sales and trinkets........ Read entire essay
Soul Music I
Outreach musical performance at a community center.
Look at these little kids! Look at their rapt attention. Listen to their applause. They have not yet learned to be bored.
It’s a poor neighborhood. These families have no symphony tickets. But a young mind exposed to something new, a young mind kept open a little longer, a young mind going home to one of these little surrounding homes, may be a little changed by this musical exposure, and a little changed mind can change the world.
Soul Music II Excerpt:
..... Musical instruments, and the musicians that master them, demonstrate the desperate drive that takes the human spirit to any lengths to establish, even if only for the duration of a performance, some connection with another human soul.......read more
Material separation
Excerpt.......
How coldly and lifelessly the material possessors to which we give our souls take from us opportunities for the eternal, chaining our consciousness to that which is disappearing even as we grasp for it........Read entire essay
Judgement Daze
Excerpts:
Never has humanity had such opportunity to judge and critique so many of our fellow humans.
Our media connections offer endless opportunities for judgement, and we greedily gather all of them in,.......
.......“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
One more commandment we blithely ignore..........
........There is good reason those quick to judge pronounce their judgments with scowling visage and down-turned mouth. They know they are next. See entire essay
Contact Eternity
Do not take yourself lightly. Do not underestimate your influence. It can be small, a word here, a touch there, a smile or scowl or blank expression, but that small influence carries on, affecting a life, then another life, then another, then another.
Faith Crisis, Faith Freedom
Ever had a crisis of faith when you had to give up a dearly held belief? I desperately dislike the wrenching torments of such crises, but eventually am inevitably grateful for them, whether addressing faith in a person, an institution, or a belief system.
I’m sure they must afflict any open minded person, anyone willing to learn and grow, anyone questioning and searching. I don’t think real faith has much strength without being exercised by crises of faith.
In a crisis of faith, reality keeps slapping you in the face to wake you up to the fact that a core principle of your beliefs is clearly mistaken. That in turns leads to the real problem.
You are left asking if everything you believe is mistaken.
If your interpretation of that verse or chapter or book or testimony was wrong, that means your interpretation of any other verse or book or testimony might be wrong. How our minds do gymnastics to try to get around that conundrum!
That is perhaps the real basis of many people’s trenchant resistance to gay rights. If people admit any error in their interpretation of scripture and tradition on that subject, then all their beliefs get called into question. No! We cannot tolerate that! We will not tolerate that! It is far less disconcerting to ignore the question and all the rational evidence contradicting our beliefs, it is even better to ignore that whispering of the conscience of our heart, than to cast into doubt our entire foundation of life!
Of course gay rights, and civil rights of every sort, entail such prolonged struggle!
Eventually we are forced to concede that our beliefs are just that, our beliefs. We are fully responsible for them. If faced with incontrovertible evidence that we are wrong, the ensuing audit of our beliefs to determine what else might be wrong is really an audit of our soul, an assay of the state of our spirit.
When the carpet of our beliefs gets pulled out from under us, we can no longer rely on the family and institutional source of those beliefs. Disproving one belief casts all the others into doubt. Horror of horrors, we are forced to accept personal responsibility for what we believe!
The mind and logic and intellect can undo beliefs. But only the heart and soul can allow beliefs to take root. The forced assessment of our beliefs is a forced personal inventory of who we are at the deepest level. Of course we want to avoid that! Of course we shirk that responsibility!
That is why revolutions of liberation, the logical- rational- fact based- and common sense inescapable conclusions that would liberate ethnic groups, racial groups, gender groups, religious groups, and political groups, inevitably lead to a far greater liberation of the people whose beliefs have to be wrenchingly changed in order to accept the other person’s liberation.
The person gaining civil rights is simply finally getting what they always wanted. The person who has to accept the liberation of that other person is being freed, albeit unwillingly, to assess the inherited belief systems that shaped their life and behavior, and thereby freed to sculpt anew their own life foundations.