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 […]
Category Archives: Mind
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mail Order Annie
I acquired my first Harry Chapin album in the fall of 1972 when I arrived in Anchorage. Heads & Tails it was titled. It was the first of 11 albums Harry would produce over his too-short career that ended tragically in a car accident in May 1981, the same month and year my best friend […]
Huxley and Orwell
As a young man, I failed to read two important books that continue to be revered as classics, 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Both describe a dystopian society of the future. Huxley wrote his masterpiece in 1931; Orwell wrote his in 1949, the year I was born. In his […]
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] […]