I think a lot about light, maybe more during the Christmas season when there is less of it than at other times of the year. My friend Father Paul frequently quotes words from Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell lyrics But the tallest candlestick Ain’t much good without a wick You’ve got to stay bright to be the …
Category Archives: Spirit
Learning to Pray
On our home page, we profess John O’Donohue’s truth, “Prayer is the presence that holds harmony in the midst of chaos. Every time you pray, you add to the light and harmony of creation. If you do not pray, if you do not believe in prayer, then you are living off the prayers of other …
Feeling Fit
I feel my best when I engage in regular exercise. Excepting my college years as a varsity athlete – of course in those days at the Air Force Academy one did not have to be a varsity athlete to exercise regularly – I have never been more fit than during the last ten years when …
Thanksgiving
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 …
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 …
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 …