The Used Life

The Dreamer

You are the dream you yourself are dreaming. This is a thought that came to mind during my meditation this morning. I jotted it down in my notebook along with several other, related thoughts, including: your grip on reality is so tight when you are always wanting, always grasping, always chasing, always performing, that you…
This Isn’t Goodbye & Other Art

This Isn’t Goodbye, paper collage, 2026 Here are some new experiments in collge art. First, I’ve included a song to pair with the title composition, This Isn’t Goodbye. I was listening to 80s rock playlists while I was collaging yesterday and today. The song, “These Dreams,” by Heart came on while I was making This…
Stay Close to the Cosmos VI

First, We Were Wanderers, paper collage, 2024 I love making collages that feature a single person (or several small people) against a cosmic background, like a vast, starry sky, a galaxy, or a larger-than-life planet looming over the horizon. I find compositions like these comforting, even reassuring, because they give me a distinct sense that…
Sweet Dreams & Other Art

Sweet Dreams, paper collage, 2026 Here are some new experiments in collage art. I hope you enjoy this collection.
On Fitness

Regular exercise has been part of my daily, or almost daily, routine for the past 20 years. And while my relationship with fitness has certainly changed over time, it continues to play an important role in my life as a ritual—and one that enhances my wellbeing in innumerable ways. When I was in my mid-20s…
A Journey Under the Rainbow & Other Art

A Journey Under the Rainbow, paper collage, 2026 Here are some new experiments in collage art. I made these while the snow was falling this past weekend. I hope you enjoy them.
Birds of Winter, Part IV

Song Sparrow Before the next bout of winter weather hits the Carolinas this weekend, I thought I would do a quick photo dump of last weekend’s winter storm, along with some photographs I took throughout the week. I hope you enjoy these.
Thoughts on Alignment

Even though I don’t listen to audiobooks, I occasionally scroll through the titles that Spotify recommends. For reasons unbeknownst to me, my latest recommendations are in the self-help category and seem to center on the theme of not caring what other people think, or how to remain relatively unaffected or unbothered by other peoples’ words…
The Positive Side of High Sensitivity

Intelligences are atoms of perception — they know and they see and they are pure, in short they are God. How then are Souls to be made? How then are these sparks which are God to have identity given them — so as ever to possess a bliss peculiar to each one’s individual existence. How,…
Birds of Winter, Part III

Yellow-rumped Warbler With the winter storm approaching this weekend, I have every intention of spending as much time outdoors with my camera as possible. My bird feeders typically get mobbed on very cold days, especially when there’s snow and ice, and I would love to capture some of the action. I am also going out…