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, […]
Category Archives: Awe and Wonder
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 […]
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 […]
The Peak of Summer
A strong storm rumbled across the upper Midwest this morning. It carried a message. “This is the peak of summer,” the strong wind proclaimed. Although autumn is my favorite time of year, I am sad to see this particular summer end. Oddly, I don’t recall feeling this way since the summer of 1966 as I […]
Beauty in Nowhere
I’ve not read poetry by Hayden Carruth, but I will. Garrison Keillor notes that last week was Mr. Carruth’s birthday as was my daughter-in-law’s. He would have been 98-years old; she is not. I have read three good books by Wendell Berry who Mr. Keillor refers to in his notes on Mr. Carruth… “Carruth then […]
Beyond Politics
I saw a bee on a flower this morning and recalled these words from Celtic thinker John O’Donohue… “Animals know nothing of Freud, Jesus, Buddha, Wall Street, the Pentagon or the Vatican. They live outside the politics of human intention… they already inhabit the eternal… the dignity, beauty, and wisdom of the animal world [is] […]
Not To Be Taken for Granted
One of the great pleasures in life during our time in the desert was monsoon season. Mrs. tVM and I enjoyed sitting on our covered decks and watching the lightning flash and the rain pour from the sky in bucketsful. It was wondrous and awe-inspiring. Since moving to the hobbit house a week ago, Clarence […]
Two Nights on the Hill
While I fiercely miss the daily companionship of Mrs. tVM, I have found peace in my two nights on the hill since we became ‘homeless’ on Friday. Mrs. tVM will reside with our daughter and her family across the St. Croix River in Minnesota. I have chosen to live with Clarence on the hill in […]
Gonna Set My Soul Free
Swedish writer and photographer Staffan Widstrand comments, “Many people have experienced for themselves the value of simply walking in nature, how you return feeling refreshed, how your thinking is clearer and you are more balanced.” My personal direct encounters with nature throughout my life verify Mr. Widstrand’s observation. “In a hole in the ground there […]