Create the life you want.

I remember being so excited back when I discovered Prodigy in the 80s , an online forum for chatting with people of similar interests, checking this new thing called e-mail, and searching for all kinds of information right from my own computer in my own home. I thought this was just incredible. It was like having an entire library right at my fingertips, right on my own private computer, right in my home! Among other interests, I recall being part of a group who self-selected

Mary Oliver asked what you plan to do with your one wild and precious life ? It is, you know -- precious. You are precious and your life is precious, too. So is our one world. You get this one world. We all do. One world. One life. Take care of both of those things, as they are one and the same. Treasure your life like the precious gift that it is. Cherish your world like the precious satellite that it is. There is no plan B. Take care, good loving care, of yourself, your spa

Think of all the advice you’ve heard about seeing. What you see is what you get. It’s hiding in plain sight; open your eyes! Don’t believe everything you see. A picture is worth a thousand words. I know it’s true – I’ve seen it with my own eyes. We rely heavily on our eyesight, more so than any of our other senses. I think that works against us for several reasons but mainly because we can be easily fooled or misled by what we see. It’s important to remember that. We see what

E Every cloud has a silver lining. Certain adages are repeated over and over – thus becoming cliché – because they are generally true. Nearly 400 years ago, John Milton wrote a poem he called Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle in which he wondered if “a ‘sable cloud [did] turn forth her silver lining on the night?” The phrase eventually became commonplace in the cliché, every cloud has a silver lining. Here’s the point: seeking some evidence of hope in the midst of gloo

I am tired. It’s not because of anything I’ve done, like a good long run or hours of yard work. No, I’m tired because of an accumulation of recent events in life. It’s important to recognize when life is tiring you out. Because that happens. It’s real. Good things, hard things, all the things – doesn’t matter. There are times when it’s exhausting. So when you feel tired, pay attention, and don’t underestimate the impact that life has on the psyche and the body. Sure, we all h

Having just spent the week with a brand new lens in my right eye which corrects my vision and is crystal clear and my decades-old lens in my left eye which has needed glasses for over 30 years and has still got a well-developed cataract has been – may I say it? – an eye-opening experience. All week, I’ve been shutting one eye then the other back and forth like a child playing with a fascinating new toy. Cataracts are a normal part of aging. Yes, I’ve aged to the point of havi

When did I stop listening to country music? How long have I been eating the same breakfast? I used to begin every day off by watching The Today Show; I don’t do that anymore. I went to church as a kid with my parents, quit when I went to college, started again when I had kids, quit when they got older, and now go from time to time and church to church when I feel so moved, which isn’t often but happens occasionally. When we are in our routine, we don’t typically give it much

By the time many of you read this, I’m likely to be living with the effects of a good old-fashioned nor’easter blizzard. The good news is that 19 th  and 20 th  century science has brought us a pretty thorough understanding of this kind of weather. But the last several decades of science and, most important, technology has improved our ability to predict storms like this one with impressive accuracy. Lives are saved because we can prepare and that is a very good thing. We typ

I woke up from a dream last week in which I’d been traveling to a familiar destination, happy and eager to get where I was going, as I’d always had good experiences in my previous travels there. When I arrived – and I arrived at the right place – it was not the right place. I was confused and disoriented. I knew where I was but I was not where I knew myself to be. Psychoanalysis aside, I was intrigued by the feeling I experienced: How often we follow a plan or a path with sup

Last Friday, in my weekly practice I call Lectio 360, I read a poem by Alberto Rios, a professor at Arizona State University and Arizona's first poet laureate. He leads off the poem When Giving Is All We Have  with an inspiring prompt: One river gives its journey to the next . I've been thinking about it ever since. What are you giving on your journey? What has been given to you from someone else on their journey, knowingly or unknowingly? What have you done with what you hav