One Flight
It seems to me that some glimpses of beauty call to be seen in defined frames. During the recent long and stunning Autumn, I recorded many such instances during ordinary walks in ordinary settings.
Read MoreIt seems to me that some glimpses of beauty call to be seen in defined frames. During the recent long and stunning Autumn, I recorded many such instances during ordinary walks in ordinary settings.
Read MoreThe first time in October that I hiked at my favorite Minnesota lake, the foliage glowed, but the environment had lost its summer song. The bugs were gone, and silence emanated an intense peace. Long amber strands of...
Read MoreI see the prairie first as I pull in the public parking lot of a lakeside, regional Minnesota park. Every week the colors have changed. Today I don’t even go into the woods because the prairie captures me with her...
Read MoreRobins evaded my camera. They chose the quietest spots striped with shade along an asphalt trail to forage. Cottonwood seeds lined the trail and clover continued the white lace pattern in adjacent grass. This looked like the place for a...
Read MoreThe skinny trail I walk enhances my awe of the Mississippi. Water licks the shore three feet to my right. The trail fades to open forest floor. I look up, and am dazzled by the canopy of bright May. Massive...
Read More“Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.” – Tao Te Ching, Chapter 28 Food is grown in the valley. Animals find water there and thrive. A town in a valley benefits from the lush...
Read More“Man is ruled by Earth. Earth is ruled by Heaven. Heaven is ruled by the Way. The Way is ruled by itself.” – Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25 Like ancient Christians, Taoists conceive of heaven as the spiritual realm. Westerners...
Read MoreBlessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9 If offspring are the same species as their parents, then peacemakers are fledgling gods. Since making peace is almost impossible, this makes sense. Efforts...
Read More“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8 As a Jungian psychotherapist, I work with people to help them understand their dreams. In the Jungian framework, symbols of wholeness in dreams are sometimes understood as...
Read MoreBlessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7 In a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, called “The White Snake,” a man acquires the ability to understand the speech of animals. In this, he...
Read MoreFrom a Taoist perspective, harmonizing with the deepest spiritual impulses leads to good fortune. This happens when a person seeks to be their truest self rather than conforming with others for ego-based reasons. One complexity in the “how-to” is dealing...
Read MoreIn the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass K-T Extinction, the death of dominant land dinosaurs made-way for smaller animals to flourish. (Scoville, 2019). Duck-billed platypuses, green sea turtles, cockroaches, lobsters, sea stars, horseshoe crabs, and others. These inherited the Earth. (Blue Planet Aquarium,...
Read MoreThe second Beatitude is a powerful feminine weapon in Taoist warfare against the bitterness that can accumulate with time. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4. No one who’s truly alive escapes major loss. As...
Read MoreFor Taoist instructions on spiritual warfare, look at Matthew 5:3-12 in the Christian Bible. Taken superficially, the Beatitudes look like affirmations for polite society. But Jesus didn’t seem concerned with social etiquette nor preventing hurt feelings. The teachings sound more...
Read MoreUnder my pillow and facing upward on the bed a 3x5 inch plastic box brought the always-manifesting radio of sublime reality from the ethers into my rebellious 13-year-old ear. The King Biscuit Flour Hour and Roger Daltrey’s insistence, “See me,...
Read MoreWhile supernovas explode in space, I live on Earth in a body made of stardust. While I can't fathom creation, the Creator still speaks to me in my dreams. The poem that follows, The Nature of Our Relationship, centers on seeking relationship with the Creator of infinite possibilities.
Read MoreI dreamed long ago of a tiger wearing a dhoti (a white cloth wrapped around her pelvis), sitting in a cage of iron bars, with her body twisted completely in knots, legs forward and up, ankles behind head, sitting still...
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