“If you say “no” to one little detail of your life, you’ve unraveled the whole thing. You have to say “yes” to the whole thing, including its extinction. That’s what’s known as “joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.” It’s my little theme song.” — Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the…
I was thinking about my adult children through the lens of Tim Urban’s famous blog post, The Tail End. It reminded me that I’m on the flip side of his statement about his parents. Now I’m the parent with kids that live away from home. In many ways I’m on the tail end of my…
“Hours are like diamonds, don’t let them waste” — The Rolling Stones, Time Waits for No One “Remember that your real wealth can be measured not by what you have, but by what you are.”― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich I sat with this blog post a beat longer, deciding for just a moment…
And I knew all of my lifeThat someday it would endGet up and go outsideDon’t let the old man inMany moons I have livedMy body’s weathered and wornAsk yourself how would you beIf you didn’t know the day you were bornTry to love on your wifeAnd stay close to your friendsToast each sundown with wineDon’t…
Now I’m a reader of the night skyAnd a singer of inordinate tunesThat’s how I float across time, living way past my primeLike a long lost baby’s balloonSo I hang on to the string, work that whole gravity thingBut when my space ship goes pop, back to the earth I will dropInto the sea, or…
“Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular,…
I know, you never intended to be in this world. But you’re in it all the same. So why not get started immediately. I mean, belonging to it. There is so much to admire, to weep over. And to write music or poems about. Bless the feet that take you to and fro. Bless the…
“A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden In a full confession that will surprise no one in my circle of friends and family, I struggle with the act of idleness. I rarely sit still,…
“There seemed to be endless obstacles preventing me from living with my eyes open, but as I gradually followed up clue after clue it seemed that the root cause of them all was fear.”― Marion Milner, A Life of One’s Own When we think about it, most everything we imagine to be the worst case…
If you got a chance, take it, take it while you got a chanceIf you got a dream, chase it, ’cause a dream won’t chase you backIf you’re gonna love somebodyHold ’em as long and as strong and as close as you can‘Til you can’t— Cody Johnson, ‘Til You Can’t In America, this week is…