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 …
Category Archives: Mind
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] …
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 …
Lessons from the River
We are blessed with two wonderful, young and vibrant families as neighbors, one on our left, the other on the right. Adam – to my left – acquired a kayak a few days ago and was anxious to log his maiden voyage on the Kinnickinnic and I enthusiastically volunteered to join him. Friday, May 31 …
Encounter the Miraculous
Early this morning, Clarence and I went mushrooming with our good friend Bonnie and her dog Bruno. A thin mist wetted the air and made the leaves greener than Ireland. Bonnie startled me when she called out, “Oh my goodness!” “Did you find a mushroom?” I replied. “No. A fawn!” I immediately put Clarence on …
Scarlet Tanager
Thanks to our good friends, Mrs. tVM, Clarence and I spend two hours each day in the fresh, open air surrounded by fields and forest. With the exception of an infrequent airliner passing overhead, there is no noise pollution and we are immersed in the uplifting calls from a wide variety of songbirds. The variety …