Poem for a Sunday Morning

WEAN YOURSELF Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of more invisible game. Think how it is to

The Lightest Touch

The Lightest Touch {David Whyte} Good poetry begins with the lightest touch, a breeze arriving from nowhere, a whispered healing arrival, a word in your ear, a settling into things, then like a hand in the dark it arrests your whole body, steeling you for revelation. In the silence that follows a great line you

Life is always there

Sometimes it is small and just barely there. Sometimes it grows out of nothing into something. Sometimes it’s in the middle of the path. Sometimes we notice it and sometimes we don’t. Life is always there, it is always happening. It is among the greatest disciplines we can practice, that of expecting to encounter life

All the Other Selves

I really like this quote: “The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather” ― Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets I

Living a Redwood Life

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way… As a man is, so he sees.” {William Blake} Last year at this time, with the semester drawing to a close, I decided to share with my students some images from

Redwood Homily

I wrote this piece a few days before Thanksgiving last year during a visit to Humboldt Redwood State Park. It’s an extraordinary place…humbling, grounding and pure. Modern pilgrims wander through an ancient cathedral. They bear witness to the crescendo of a timeless symphony that began with a single note of fertile earth. Modern faith fails

A Development Exercise for Your Weekend Enjoyment

Respond to this statement five times: “I am the kind of leader who…” Then, respond to this statement three times: “Right now, my team is…” Finally, respond to this statement just once: “The most important thing I can learn next is…” Once you’ve completed your responses, decide which item about your team is most important

Not the Same

Today did not go how I thought it would. When I went to bed last night, I had a clear idea of how the day would unfold. It did not go that way. When I woke up at 3am I tossed and turned about how today would go. It did not go that way. On

Unique Human Needs: Growth

I am energized to spend this week reflecting on Tony Robbins’ list of unique human needs. Here’s the list in its entirety followed by a brief reflection on the quality of “Growth.” Unique Human Needs 1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure 2. Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli

I Got Knocked Down Again

I watched Brene Brown’s Netflix special, The Call to Courage, for a second time today and her call to get into the arena, to be willing to get knocked down – to embrace the certainty of getting knocked down – reminded me of a post I wrote last October. Here it is again, truer than ever.