Everything in the first list is true. Everything in the second list is also true. TRUTH Life is hard.* You are not important. Your life is not about you. You are not in control. You are going to die CONSOLATION Yes, it’s hard. It’s also joyful and magnificent. Which do you choose to focus on?Continue reading “Truth and Consolation”
Tag Archives: redwoods
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 fromContinue reading “Living a Redwood Life”
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 failsContinue reading “Redwood Homily”
Open, Not Apart
Our hearts do not break apart, they break open. It is through this opening that what we need tiptoes in, staying beyond our vision until we are ready to see. This is difficult to explain. It must be lived…felt…to be understood. Consider the way the fallen Redwood opens space in the canopy of the forestContinue reading “Open, Not Apart”
You Are Not a Falling Tree
Can you imagine being present on the day when a massive, shallow-rooted redwood tree came crashing to the earth, splintering into enormous jagged shards of timber? Can you imagine the sound, the grotesque violence, the shredding and grating of the collision as one falling tree snapped over the back of one that had previously fallen?Continue reading “You Are Not a Falling Tree”
Redwood Homily
Modern pilgrims wander into 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 to note that these pillars haven’t always splintered the sun. It must learn this one thing: that every living thing is called to find its tallestContinue reading “Redwood Homily”
A Week of Thanks: Day 5
I am thankful to walk among giants. I am thankful for my teachers. Only a cursory mental review yields too many to name, too many to count, even. The guides, mentors, instructors, influencers who have shaped my life, both head and heart. Each made a mark at a key moment in my development that wasContinue reading “A Week of Thanks: Day 5”
RULE13 Learning 