Saturday Mornings

​I used to think ...that you needed to learn how to hold on tighter to what you wanted. Now I know that letting go  is necessary.

​Early success is probably the worst thing that can happen in life. -- Satya Nadella

' Poem selection' for the week -- “So?”: So you aren’t Tolstoy of St. Francis or even a well-known singer of popular songs and ...

​How does one reconcile these two things: that the heart is deceitfully wicked ( above all things ) and that God has placed His Spirit in ou...

It never really comes down to just one play...or does it?

​The sooner you start living for something else, the sooner you will start receiving something else.

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of  gratitude  will allow. -- Edwar...

Muscle has to be developed. Every muscle , real or metaphorical, needs exercise to grow .  ...even the muscle of gratefulness .

How is gratitude developed? Does it just happen?  Is it a state of being?  What are the conditions that generate our giving of thanks? I ...

' Poem selection' for the week -- “Praise Song”: Praise the light of late November , the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bon...

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I real...

More Saturday Mornings Brunch : Improve your character through mindful striving or let your character worsen through negligence and obli...

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -- T.S. Eliot

​Nobody knows the future. In the future, we look at the past to see what was going on in the present for an indicator of what will be going ...

It is important to understand why letting go is so hard for so many leaders. Successful enterprises tend to be built by vigorous leaders wi...

​I like writing by hand because it slows me down and it keeps me from writing at a pace faster than I can think. -- John Irving

​ Organic : When it happens or when you think about it,  write it down ; otherwise it tends to evaporate.

' Poem selection' for the week -- "When I Became a Christian": When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in, ...

Words of tribute like this seem only capable of falling short for the man, Leonard Cohen.  My wife knows how I feel about him...how many...

How much of what we don't know about ourselves is due to having put or kept ourselves in a position to not find out What if our ignor...

If you don’t know who Ernie Johnson is, this will explain a lot.

I'm grateful (Geri) for this image and thought : ​…the heart of this country does not beat in Washington, DC, nor does its soul lie ...

Government doesn’t move unless it’s pushed. -- Yvon Chouinard I've been contemplating the merits of this claim. And, another thin...

​Wise people admit doubts ; fools and fanatics do not. -- Bertrand Russell

​God is the Creator, or perhaps as one song put it, the Creating One. And, because this is true, He is still at work...creating. ...among ...

We’ve had a tutorial on worry this year. The election campaign isn’t really about policy proposals, issue solutions or even hope. It’s led...

The things that break all at once aren’t really a problem. You note that they’ve broken, and then you fix them. The challenge is corrosio...

What an amazing year, World Series, and Game 7!  More here .... And, a touching Michiana Chronicles story about some of the history beh...

I've noticed ...that I ask God for help in order to know myself better, when I could be asking for help to know Him better. ...the two...

​It probably goes without saying that there are different kinds of leadership. The question isn't so much which is wrong or which is rig...

' Poem selection' for the week -- "Councils".  If only we could; if only we would do the following...especially during th...

As Christianity evolved in the centuries following Jesus’ death and resurrection, it naturally drew ideas from the surrounding Mediterranean...

Kathy Fletcher and David Simpson have a son named Santi, who went to Washington, D.C., public schools. Santi had a friend who sometimes we...

When something is simple but difficult to achieve, the right question to ask isn’t, “What can I learn to help me get better?” It’s, “What b...

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers ...

A few years ago, my wife and I spent a week hiking on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon , returning to a comfortable room at the lodge each ...

I used to think ...that meaninglessness was unnecessary.  Now I know it is when we feel meaninglessness that we often end up seeking, and fi...

​Two different people recently mentioned to me something I said to them a while ago...both, of which, I had forgotten even saying. My initia...

More pics here ....

I have found the phenomenon of male initiation in every culture and on every continent until the modern era. Something that universal—and so...

Their public conference had been interrupted by a demonstration march and a bomb threat, so the white nationalists decided to meet secretl...

Organic :  It often seems that genuine humility  is more possible after a genuine kind of arrogance .

I think 99 times and I find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence , and the truth comes to me. -- Albert Einstein Perhaps, much of ...

I've noticed ...that catalysts for change in me have been things that make me ask different  questions ...than the ones I normally carr...

Adversity changes your questions.

' Poem selection' for the week -- "Autumn": I want to mention summer ending without meaning the death of somebody l...

More Saturday Mornings Brunch : Many flowering plants won't bloom again if you leave the dead-heads unpruned.  How far would an analo...

If your ego is still in charge, you will find a disposable person or group on which to project your problems. People who haven’t come to at...

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeki...

​​I used to think ...that I had an open mind . Now I know that I need to be much more aware of things that close it. For example, what are t...

It is appropriate, even necessary, to let silence speak to us. For it is out of silence sometimes that we can hear...a unique voice we other...

' Poem selection' for the week -- "My Childhood Home I See Again": My childhood home I see again, And sadden with the ...

​I am the way, the truth, the life. -- John 14:6 Could it be said like this?  "I am the way, to the truth , which gives you life....

It could be that possibility has always been a collision between our limitations and our imagination .

We must deepen our respect for an unfilled thing, in part by not always filling it, especially where time is involved.  Embracing, even seek...

We seem to so need our bearings, don't we? Geographically, we want to know where we are.  In our jobs, we want to know how we're doi...

​ I've noticed ...that my anger is often connected to where I feel or fear rejection .

There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings . -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

' Poem selection' for the week -- "Ars Poetica": To have even a lotto chance of getting somewhere within yoursel...

The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of ...

I have been having some dialog with a friend about being and doing: Dana: Regarding our conversation yesterday on doing and being, I have...

I was driving with a tall, strong Tongan man. He told me how much he was struggling being in America, especially with the sense of loss of...

10 Things Mentally Strong People Won't Do: They don’t dwell on mistakes . They don’t hang around negative people. They don’t stop b...

​Almost all leadership comes out of a person's core design and is, at the same time, incomplete.  So, leadership requires leaders...not...

​I used to think ...that the best stuff was received when I took care of my own responsibilities. Now I know that our greater joy comes fro...

After watching the first debate of the presidential debate season, the following seems significant...as it spans both when it was written an...

Walking our dogs in the dark recently; the skies...well Longfellow says it so well! ' Poem selection' for the week -- "Endym...

I’m convinced that beneath the ugly manifestations of our present evils—political corruption, ecological devastation, warring against one an...

More Saturday Mornings Brunch : We all want to know that the other person believes in something bigger than themselves. **** As I grew ...

​Work, food and play , when done together with others, is like mortar for our faith — they hold its bricks in place.

We need to be human  again.  Only then can we be something more than we typically expect of ourselves.

I've noticed ...that there are all kinds of weeds that grow in my relationships when I don't spend time in them.

​Sometimes words and ideas seem to lose all their weight and substance, becoming even vaporish, while at other times, they seem strong enou...

' Poem selection' for the week -- "Every Riven Thing": God goes, belonging to every riven thing he's made sing his...

​ Prayer is a lot of things, not the least of which is being attentive to God,  paying attention to the real things of life ( Col 4:2 ).  I...

More  Saturday Mornings Brunch : ...always a great trip when we go to the ' Big House '.  More pics here .... **** Someone ...

Great leaders are those who trust their gut. They are those who understand the art before the science. They win hearts before minds. -- ...

How bad do you want it?  How easily will you quit your pursuit of it?

​I used to think ...that certainty was essential.  Now I know that, although clarity is so compelling, the more comfortable we can become w...

​Reliability, initiative, and sensitivity to others are keys to good work -- what people want when they hire someone. Focus, ingenuity, an...

' Poem selection' for the week -- "Hothouse": A rose, rose. A violet, violet. A jade, jade. No. The architecture of ea...

Hope + Peace + Love = Joy

It seems to me that I have greater peace … when I am not 'trying to be contemplative,' or trying to be anything special, but simply ...

Joy can only be real only if people look upon their life as a service , and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their per...

​Even the most docile, reserved, or self-controlled of men can have a great fury.

I've noticed ...that I shouldn't be more interested in looking at someone else than I am at looking at myself .

​A budget is just a theory, without any specific mechanisms to follow it.

' Poem selection' for the week -- "The Inward Morning": Packed in my mind lie all the clothes    Which outward nature ...