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...]

No one likes pain.  We don’t go shopping for it and we don’t clip coupons trying to get it at some discount.  I don’t think most of us expend our lives in the pursuit of it, nor are we on some sort of safari with the intent of bagging it as a trophy.  In reality, when we see it coming, we typically run as fast and as far as possible in whatever … [Read more...]

Mankind’s history is strewn with sordid stories of horrific evil.  The yellowed pages of history as well as the fresh pages of the daily paper are littered thick and knee deep with accounts of ruthless destruction, mindless devastation, heartless obliteration and acts so viciously awful that they are at times entirely incomprehensible.  We can cull … [Read more...]

I was thinking.  And the more I thought, the more I realized that there is a whole lot to think about.  But in my thinking, I thought that most of our thinking (despite how much there is to think about) is really pretty standardized and chafingly rote.  We think we think, but the more I think about that, the less I think we think (if you know what … [Read more...]

The nature of our humanity is such that we are thirsty for connectivity, desperate for relationship, vibrantly enlivened by the sharing of souls, and wildly transformed when another life dares to connect with us in those places raw and wounded.  We do not live in isolation, and to think so is to ignore the undeniable connectivity that occurs when … [Read more...]

There is a tremendous and completely ingenious capability inherent in our humanity that exceeds our wildest expectations.  Sadly, we have dumbed ourselves down to the point that we have compromised, and in many cases altogether forfeited these marvelous capabilities.  In doing so, our conviction regarding our capability is marginalized to near … [Read more...]

Decisions. Life is quite literally jam-packed with them. We make them all of the time; literally one after another after another. Hardly a single minute passes where we’re not thinking through and making some sort of decision. Some decisions are huge and sweeping, amply possessing both the power and scope to impact our lives for the rest of our … [Read more...]

An unknown author wrote, “Real treasure lies not in what that can be seen, but what cannot be seen.”  We possess this strangely cockeyed perception that we must be able to see something in order to treasure it.  More than that, we think that we have to be able to somehow hold it in our hands.  And then, in far too many cases we think we have to be … [Read more...]

What is the nature of our mentality anyway?  We are a complex collection of experiences, wounds, failures, successes, relationships, genetics and a wholly innumerable array of other things that press together and then settle into some sort of uniquely amalgamated compilation that makes us, us.  The nature of these things and the manner in which … [Read more...]

A conscience is that pressing sense that unerringly guides our choices and pricks us when we don’t heed it’s prompting.  It’s that mysteriously universal compass that relentlessly points true north when we don’t have any idea where true north is, or when prefer to take some other direction altogether out of a sense of convenience or selfishness or … [Read more...]