Riding the Pooka

Is it time to retire my Oncologist?

Joe sent me a thought provoking article from the New Yorker on the need for incremental medicine, the kind practiced by old fashioned generalists, contrasted with the heroic medicine practiced by specialists. Which of course had me thinking about how Cancering treatments might be different if we valued the more subtle aspects of medicine as much as…

What you need to know about Existential Suffering

Pain and Suffering are different things. This is something I have pondered in superficial ways at times. After reading quite an amazing post, Pain vs Suffering: Why they’re not the same for Patients, on the blog Heart Sisters, my mind is whirling. Carolyn Thomas’s well researched article explains so much. Though she is a longtime cardiology patient, her insights…

Use your Power for Good.

There used to be an opera programmer on Coast Community Radio when we first moved to town in the mid 1990’s. The programmer, Ed David, was quite elderly at the time. Sometimes there were long pauses while he arranged a record on the turntable, or gathered his thoughts. His thoughts and descriptions were so good,…

Death Defying Acts, or Why I Blog.

There are many realms and layers of influence, the places where our lives intersect intimately with others. Any way you categorize life there are crossroads with other souls. Work, friendships, and these days the vast interwoven web of the world are all places of connection. This can be especially true around important life changing events….

A tool we need for the task at hand.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact of kind regards in my life. Specifically as it applies to health and happiness. It dawned on me that our thoughts for and about each other create some sort of force field, the Vibe-O-Sphere if you will. In a healthy Vibe-O-Sphere the community of folks trust each…

Busy-Body

You know the stereo type of the Busy Body? You know the one who is in everyone else’s business? Probably criticizing others while being blind to their own limitations? Well I am turning into one lately. Yep. It all started with what seemed like a really good thing. And then another really good thing. And…

Body as Enemy – Body as Ally

Some of my best thinking happens in the shower. The warm water and steam seem to open up my mind to possibilities that otherwise wouldn’t occur to me. The other morning it was a question: Am I being an ally to my body or am I my own worst enemy? This led to more questions….

Pete Rose Rooster and Gilda Chicken are Dead.

An open letter to the human companion of the dog who killed our chicken. In the last days of 2016, I came home after work to a flurry of feathers overlaying the grass at the curb. There were feathers even more numerously covering the stairs up to the house. I knew we had lost another chicken, but…

Good Bye 2016 -Will Auld Acquaintance be Forgot?

What a year. What a wild transformative journey 2016 has been for us all collectively. Even now people in New Zealand and Australia have already passed the threshold into 2017, a threshold that is moving across the globe as we speak. As we look back and look forward we have two tales to tell ourselves….

Insomnia on Boxing Day

At one time my days regularly started at 2:50 a.m. That is when my alarm went off to set in motion my work as a baker. It was a rare day that the alarm actually woke me though, it was most usual for me to already be awake with my mind racing ahead or behind like…

Stopping the Black Snake with Prayer & Discipline

Yesterday some much needed good news came in. The DAPL is being halted. As a result of months of prayers and disciplined non violent organizing led by the Standing Rock Sioux. This is the most hopeful thing I have witnessed, maybe ever. I am so grateful; to the wise elders who led, to all those who…

Imagine 2017: the year your dreams come true…

With all of the events of 2016 rattling around our minds, it can be hard to imagine how anything can be right in the world. How it is possible for our lives to move in a positive direction. I know. The thing is that when we step into the place of getting clear on what…