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In September

I saw you standing with the wind and the rain in your faceAnd you were thinking ’bout the wisdom of the leaves and their graceWhen the leaves come falling downIn September when the leaves, come falling down— Van Morrison, When the Leaves Come Falling Down The puppy is having her first autumn, and in New…

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Swapping Idols for Vanaprastha

“The first ashrama is brahmacharya, the period of youth and young adulthood dedicated to learning. The second is grihastha, when a person builds a career, accumulates wealth, and maintains a family. This second stage seems fairly straightforward and uncontroversial, but in this stage the Hindu philosophers find one of life’s most common traps: People become…

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Talkin’ to Myself

Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ oldSometimes I’d like to quitNothin’ ever seems to fitHangin’ aroundNothin’ to do but frownRainy days and Mondays always get me down— The Carpenters/Adam Williams, Rainy Days and Mondays Rainy days and Mondays never really drag me down. Sure, we’ve had way more rain than we should this season, while others…

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay.— Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay Halfway through another month as I publish this, and I shake my head at the magic…

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Significance Transcends

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing…