Happy Water Tiger Year

It’s Chinese New Years time. This Spring Festival (Lunar New Years) is going to be more subdued than usual because of the Covid – again. This is the year 4719 in the ancient Chinese calendar. I enjoyed some great holiday celebrations during the twelve years I lived in China. We would travel, along with literally …

Soul Magnet

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. – Nietzsche My earliest memory is lying on my back in my baby crib, with no separation between my self and the world. Attracted by the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue, I wordlessly watched the gently swaying bird mobile …

U R the Meat of the Metaverse

Reality is frequently inaccurate. – Douglas Adams Back in the 1990s, I was an alpha tester for an online education project being developed at NCSA (The National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The previous sentence was my payment – the right to say I had briefly worked with NCSA at UIUC. Because of that connection, I …

3 Steps to a Natural High

The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. – Frank Herbert We are natural beings. Although human existence is enhanced by technological artifice, our essence is affixed to the natural world. There are far too many artificial means to escape rather than embrace reality. Disconnect and unravel the illusions. …

Tonga Volcano Tsunami Waves

Wonder of nature Churning echoes from afar Roars into my soul I received a tsunami Alert this morning as I opened my Gmail. I didn’t know it could that, so thanks Google for that. I checked the expected arrival times for the waves here on the Pacific Northwest Coast and the expected wave size. I …

Be Led by Your Dreams

Standing on the bare ground,–my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,–all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature holds a myriad of …

The Inner Journey Home

If you wish to know the divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand. – Buddha We are seekers – you and I. From birth to death, we wander this life seeking the divine in all its myriad guises. But it is the inner journey that leads us home. …

Crescendo – A poem

Coursing through the piquant breeze, swirls of blood orange lifesparks Scrape across the saffron sands like delicate arpeggios. The tranquil fullness of life’s dulcet allegro Bolsters sagging courage with promises of paradise. Once buoyant blooms, long since faded, Lie in tangled heaps across the hallowed fields. The spirit, filled with tangy ripeness, Willfully begins the …

Time’s Bittersweet Inevitability

And Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”. – J.R.R. Tolkien For Christmas I had wanted to give my three wonderful children a gift that only I could give them – my memories of their childhood. For years, I have safeguarded two videotapes of …

Soaring Eagle Spirit

Powerful winds were blowing this morning here on the Pacific Northwest coast. As I walked onto the beach I glanced up to see this majestic eagle gliding gracefully above me. I think of my departed World War Two veteran Dad whenever I see an eagle on the beach. The day he died, I went to …