Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
Recently, the song “Scarborough Fair” by Simon & Garfunkel suddenly appeared on my YouTube feed. I was feeling a bit down at the time, and it arrived as a much-needed lift. I closed my eyes, leaned my chair back, and took in the beautiful ballad. As I listened, a “golden moment” came to mind—one that my fraternity brother, Mark Pearson, surely remembers. It was 1968, … Continue reading Scarborough Fair: Revisited
Charlie Brown famously said, “Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, ‘Is life a multiple choice test or is it a true or false test?’ “Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says, ‘Life is neither. It’s a thousand word essay.”’ Over the years I’ve been writing my essays and sometimes, on a rainy day, when I sit back … Continue reading Easter Has Arrived
During my 40 years of sobriety I’ve been engaged in an ongoing conversation with the Creator on all manner of topics. To me it has seemed like a long, extended prayer where, even now, I haven’t yet gotten to the “AMEN” affirmation. — So I continue to write. This week I’ve looked back over years of posts and I asked myself — what jumps out? … Continue reading A Mountain Prayer
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” ~ John Muir I came into this week drained, tired in a way that settles into the bones, feeling more … Continue reading Nature’s Tonic
It seems appropriate when we’ve been marinating in fraught and difficult times to turn to a tale about a delightfully good man — particularly as we near St. Patrick’s Day. Well, I found such a tale. To bring it to life I’ve given it the face of a departed friend, an irrepressibly good and generous man: Tucker McHugh. Once upon a time in Ireland, there was … Continue reading What Would You Do With a Pot of Gold?