Hummingbirds live at the limits of what is possible. I am reminded of a quote by David Attenborough, a documentary on hummingbirds and, for reasons I don’t yet understand, Rollo May’s The Meaning of Anxiety, which I first read about three years ago. It’s late on the Sunday morning after my birthday. I’m doing yoga [...]
Tag: psychology
A Theory of Human Motivation (the Apple or the Core)
My latest experiment in collage art: A Theory of Human Motivation (the Apple or the Core). SHOP PRINTS
A Life Worth Living
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.A. H. Maslow Would you like to a know an interesting—or, at the very least, a rather eccentric—fact about me? I wake [...]
On Gratitude
It seems popular these days to speak of gratitude as an almost magical inner experience. As if feeling thankful is, quite literally, some sort of magnet, a means of attracting the good life and all it affords. That is, love, abundance, freedom, and general life satisfaction. I emphatically disagree with this viewpoint. Of course, I’ve [...]
Of Sacred Seasons
This is time of year, my creativity seems to transform. Becomes almost corporeal—that is, more hands-on, more nurturing, more intensely connected to the rhythms of nature. Instead of spending my days in the writing room tinkering with poetry or experiments in collage, I find myself outdoors tending to the garden, to the wildlife that lives [...]
On the Art of Responsibility
Why not make a daily pleasure out of a daily necessity? Peter Mayle There are a number of reasons why I love reading Peter Mayle’s narratives of life in Provence. None the least of which is the culinary adventure that invariably takes center stage in every story. Three-hour lunches over bottles of rosé, assorted goat’s [...]
The Pretender
The Pretender, paper collage, 2021 This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 5/25/21 I awake this morning reminded of Alan Watts. My mind’s been unsettled since I published Butterfly Effect. Agitated in the way one often is when on the verge of completing a very important thought. The world inside is the [...]
So, you think you can fly.
This post is formatted to reflect an original journal entry. 3/16/21 Went for a walk last night and found a hawk feather. (A little gift from nature. If I’ve identified it correctly, from a Cooper's hawk.) I love walking. Of the many kinds of exercise I enjoy, walking is tied, perhaps most intimately, to my [...]
On Collecting Things
When it comes to collecting behavior, I wouldn’t describe myself as a tried-and-true hobbyist. In fact, there isn’t one particular object or category of objects that generally fascinates me for long. And while I might go through phases in which I’m enamored by, say, watches, vintage magazines, or vinyl records, the likelihood that I would [...]
The Miraculous in Everyday Life
Over the Hills, paper collage, 2020 I dedicated my last post to defining what it means to perceive the world as miraculous. It is a style of experiencing, or way of seeing, that is central to my belief that life is a miracle (as opposed to, say, “life is love,” “the world is dangerous,” or [...]
