Dec. 6, 2015 ~ A Journey of Mercy
“Each day is a journey and the journey itself home,” the poet Matsuo Basho wrote more than three hundred years ago. In 2006 a journey unfolded itself before me, a journey for which I was not prepared. How does a person prepare to lose everything knowable and enter into–or in my case be violently thrust […]
June 14, 2015 ~ Sitting vigil: February 2011
In the still, inky hours between midnight and dawn, my father lay dying. Unable to speak or move, struggling for breath, his vital organs shutting down, he lay there succumbing to the ravages of a severe stroke and pneumonia. It is difficult to reconcile this image with the one that is before me now. I […]
Sept. 4, 2014 ~ Storage Units, Backpacks and Slums Part II
Storage Units, Backpacks and Slums Part II 3 September 2104 So, I did a little Sunday afternoon sleuthing at the new storage place near my house. The slick brochure assures that they are here to “help you solve your storage needs”. The facility spans enough ground that I was driven around in a golf cart […]
Aug. 31, 2014 ~ Storage Units, Backpacks and Slums
31 August 2014 Before embarking on the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage through Spain), I pounded the pavement, dirt roads, hiking trails and any other surface that might provide some sort of physical conditioning. One of my routes close to home, led me by a construction site. I watched as the ground was leveled, wooden […]