There appears to be this morbid and seemingly trance-like focus on all that’s wrong in our world. This negative focus generates a debilitating sense of hopelessness that seems to exponentially grow to catastrophic proportions and beyond. We need to be painfully honest about the difficulties in our world, for to state that they are anything less … [Read more...]

I want to be happy, but I don’t think I want to be satisfied.  I want to experience a resilient and wonderfully endearing sense of contentment that neatly threads itself through every part of my soul, but I don’t want that contentment to morph into the baser mentality of complacency.  I want to keep a weathered eye on every horizon, but I want to … [Read more...]

We all have our proverbial soapboxes.  Sometimes we find ourselves hauling them out on a regular basis, standing high atop them and vigorously pontificating on whatever we’re pontificating about.  Other times they’re rarely used except in those most exceptional moments when circumstances are of such magnitude that not pulling them out feels as … [Read more...]

You ever notice that we seem to be on this relentless quest where we’re scrutinizing ourselves raw in order to ascertain what we think our flaws, our foibles, our weaknesses and our warts are?  We put ourselves under some sort of minutely dissecting microscope with skewed lenses in order to ferret out all of our little imperfections.  We … [Read more...]

I want to be happy, but I don’t think I want to be satisfied.  I want to experience a resilient and wonderfully endearing sense of contentment that neatly threads itself through every part of my soul, but I don’t want that contentment to morph into the baser mentality of complacency.  I want to keep a weathered eye on every horizon, but I want to … [Read more...]

History has pivoted on ordinary people who when faced with extraordinary circumstances drew on some deeply submerged essence of their humanity and were, in those most harrowing of moments, transformed into extraordinary people.  There are those who held themselves of no accord who stood in harm’s way or entered the dangers of the fray and turned … [Read more...]

It seems that the idea of taking a stand is perpetually taking a beating.  The whole idea of taking a stand is driven by the conviction that at certain times the need to take a stand is unarguably undeniable and inescapably inescapable.  Taking a stand is taking a risk, and sometimes a big one.  Unfortunately, not many people take a stand.  But … [Read more...]

What lies ahead of us is shrouded in the milky fog of mystery and the confounding muse of speculation that such mystery provokes.  What lies behind us might tempt us to mystery and speculation, but it will only do so in regard to making sense of what lies behind us.  And in this thing called ‘time’ and in this journey that we call ‘life,’ we are … [Read more...]

We have spent tens of thousands of years recklessly hacking away at creation. We sloppily remodel the world around us because it never quite suits us. It appears that there’s always some alteration that we deem to be superior to the original design. It seems that we seldom look at life long enough to appreciate the unmatchable qualities that exist … [Read more...]

My life is spent in holes more times than its not.  Some are deep and some are not so deep.  I have this maniacal tendency to go from one hole to another, rarely staying above ground long enough to understand what above ground looks like.  Instead, I’m repeatedly looking up from the bottom of some hole that I don’t necessarily remember falling … [Read more...]