Today is a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. We should celebrate Thanksgiving Day every day. I believe we are a culture that takes too many good things for granted. Don’t be counted among those churlish souls who fail to be thankful, who think that life …
Author Archives: tVM
Where Angels Hang Around
I cannot recall exactly when my attention was drawn to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I suspect it was sometime after I was blessed with four healthy children who have experienced minimal health issues. I was and continue to be eternally grateful for that. Watching my own children, I considered what it might have been …
The Journey Continues
Much has happened in my life since I last posted nearly a month ago… In the final days of October, we re-evaluated our decision to build a home on rural acreage in Wisconsin. The 4-month experience of living minimally ‘off the map’ has been invaluable, but progress on the house was very slow. When you …
One Day
Sometimes, all you need is one day. After a week or two of unseasonably cold weather, yesterday was the perfect autumn day. Beautiful sunrise, clear blue sky, 50-degree temps, nary a breeze and life around me bursting with color. All it takes is a single day like that to confirm the existence of a Creator, …
What Will You Do When It’s Cold?
As Autumn ushers in colder winds from Canada, friends and acquaintances ask me – as I continue my sabbatical in a 10×16 shed with best friend Clarence – “What will you do when it’s cold?” I appreciate their concern and curiosity. Construction on the house is progressing so slowly that I will consider myself fortunate …
Family
I suspected but did not realize the strength and uniqueness of my family until my 70th birthday. I have never been a fan of birthdays, and would just as soon see them pass unnoticed as just another day. This year, the year of my 70th birthday is different. Living minimally and hermit-like and off the …
Reinvention
In 2002, I left corporate America for the first time, returned in 2004 and walked away with finality in 2012. Although I enjoyed the many trips I made to Latin America with my friend Dwight, I gained little satisfaction from the corporate world, only money. I left in 2002 with the desire and commitment to …
Medicine Wheel
In 2010, Ash Wednesday occurred on February 17th. Mrs. tVM and I attended the early morning service at the Redemptorist Renewal Center (RRC) in Picture Rocks, Arizona, 3.5 miles from our home on the edge of the Saguaro National Park to the northwest of Tucson. It was the first Ash Wednesday service I had attended …
Water
I am midway through my ninth week of living minimally ‘off the map.’ Excepting the broken leg from a week ago, it has been an exhilaratingly positive experience on all fronts: spiritually, mentally and physically. I was schooled in the ‘whole man concept’ as a cadet at the Air Force Academy 50 years ago. That …
Lessons from the Forest
Three months ago, I wrote about the lessons the Kinnickinnic River taught me when I kayaked in high, rapid water with my friend Adam. Nature continues to teach me, and once more, the hard, humbling way, but that approach is certain to capture one’s attention… Since moving up to the hill with Clarence, I have …