As I completed my income taxes over the weekend – not convinced that I should have after recently re-reading Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau – I noted that one can claim acupuncture fees as a medical deduction. I reflected on the successful acupuncture sessions I completed with Dr. Liu at Sunshine Acupuncture in River […]
Category Archives: Mind
Reusable Bags
I recently read an article discussing the benefits of reusable shopping bags, something I see occasionally but have not given much thought to despite seeing pictures of animals desperately trying to escape a plastic bag someone carelessly allowed to meander in the public domain. Reading the article, I also recalled how surprised I was when […]
Sunrise
“There is a rumor of total welcome among the frosts of the winter morning.” So writes American poet Mary Oliver in her “Wordsworth’s Mountain” essay that appears in Upstream, Ms. Oliver’s 2016 collection of essays that reflect her willingness to lose herself in the beauties and mysteries of the natural world. I chanced to read […]
Books Are Friends
I have read thousands of books throughout my life. If I compare my personal library catalog to my Outlook files, I liken each book to the type of people listed in my address book, some are friends, some, associates and others acquaintances. Nearly 500 volumes grace the shelves of the sealed bookcase downstairs and the […]
Diamonds from Dunghills
This morning, I read an interesting – and disturbing – essay in the January/February 2019 issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine: “Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War, The Coming Age of Post-Truth Geopolitics” by Robert Chesney and Danielle Citron. While I have heard the term “fake news” tossed and bandied about, I was unfamiliar with the […]
Sun Symbol of the Zia
An original post from our first year in June 2011, we consider this message so valuable and so appropriate to life on earth today that we are posting it again with the hope that more and more people will apply its wisdom tVM
America Needs a Statesman
I cannot ignore the impending catastrophe our bipartisan political system has placed in our path. It is more crippling and unavoidable than any physical wall anyone could ever build…. Yesterday, I read a thought-provoking OpEd that appears in “The Atlantic” magazine, “The Suicide of a Great Democracy” by staff writer George Packer. I would have […]
Observe with Passion
I’ve not read Mary Oliver’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize winning collection of poems American Primitive. Ms. Oliver is often compared to Emily Dickinson and her work frequently focuses on the natural world. In 2016, I read her collection of essays Upstream in which she reflects on her willingness to lose herself within the beauty and […]
Snowman
The major snow events of winter to date have passed north. While a thin layer of snow covers the ground it is far too shallow for us to break out the snowshoes. It has been cold and Afton Alps across the river in Minnesota and Trollhaugen 40 miles north of River Falls have been making […]
Life Is Real… Life Is Grand
I think for many people the promise of heaven is so indescribably glorious that they tend to dismiss their time on earth as if it were the obligatory time one spends at a gate in an airline terminal waiting to board a flight to Jamaica. That’s too bad because this life we live on earth […]