Sometimes I imagine a breaking free, an unrestrained way of being, a way of living immersed within a beautiful and timeless feeling, and my heart soars. It is the sensation of climbing onto the back of a great and powerful bird called Peace, whose wings are as vast and wide as school buses, and vaulting into the air to glide endlessly over a deep blue sea. I am filled with warmth. I am the exchange […]
The hut in which I live is a simple shelter made of wood, set on a foundation of piled stones, with a roof of hewn wooden shakes. The chimney is short, the hearth just deep enough for a piece or two of firewood. It is perched on a rise near the side of a mountain, overlooking a valley that fills with morning mist and gliding birds. There is a trail that winds along the ridge, […]
The banana yellow 1960 Impala convertible drifted to a stop about ten feet from my front porch. The top was down and Hafiz was perched behind the steering wheel, motionless as a statue, wearing an over-sized floral shirt, an Oakland Raiders ballcap turned backwards, and a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Near as I could tell he was staring straight down the boulevard, waiting, as if I knew what the hell was going on and would […]
If you are on a spiritual path- a path to awakening, a path to acceptance of the Christ within you and within everyone else and within all that is, eventually you will have a high noon showdown with the following paradox. To be awake is to know that the ever-changing expressions of Love that collectively are Creation do not simply ‘happen to’ us. They are not foisted upon us by a wrathful Creator. Nor are […]
The other day a Messenger came to my home with a certified letter. I happened to be standing at the window of my apartment, roughly a hundred feet above street level, aimlessly observing the Saturday AM shuffle of humanity down below when he arrived. He glanced up from the street right at me, as if he knew exactly which unit I was in, and of course I had no idea his arrival had anything to […]
The village in which I have lived my whole life is nestled along the coast. It is full of sun and figs and light breezes. Beyond our little harbor there is a great sea that stretches to the horizon and extends beyond the borders of the known world. No one has ever found the End. As children we used to go up on the roofs of our parent’s houses on calm spring days with baskets […]
There is a desert inside of me where I wander, like a hermit, my vocabulary reduced to variations in the salinity of my tears and one Name that I give to everything. I found myself there again last night, sheltered against the wind by a robe of old rags, walking alone amidst an endless quilt of rolling dunes beneath the stars. I know I am not the Originator of this place, even though it is […]
Once when I was a boy I asked my father for a Rubik’s Cube. My wish was granted, and when I arrived home I took it out of the package and played around for a little while making small, easily recovered changes, frequently restoring the original hexi-color symmetry. I didn’t want to lose my way back to the original, “correct” state, so I made four or five moves to “scramble” the puzzle, then put it […]
When I read Bucky Fuller, I tend to laugh out loud in joy at least once per page. I’m a geek, yes- that is surely a contributing factor to this physiognomic response- but it is the joy of recognizing Bucky’s mind that really sets into motion the cascading processes that result in air being fired from my lungs in short bursts. His writing bristles with intelligence, connection, humility and honesty. One reason I enjoy reading […]
Who is studying the Course? And to what end? Who hears the words? Who is stirred to hope for a new life? Who recognizes Love and surrenders, turning round then to confront their darkness? Who finds it too complicated or difficult? Who knows? My little, egoic self is a Seeker. The starting point for this little one is the deeply held belief that my unique and particular historically-derived collection of personal experiences is all that […]
Embracing Forever 