Making peace with death
One of my most treasured mementos is a poem that my mother, Kate Penny, wrote long ago shortly after being present for her father's death. Mum, who was born in North Devon, England, on September 26,...
View ArticleFinding true friends
Friendship covers a lot of territory. I consider the big blue spruce tree that grows outside our front porch a friend. The bunnies that find shade and protection beneath this tree are friends. The sea...
View ArticleThe wonder of little moments
Wonder still lives. It really does. You may or may not have seen the following story that was on ABC news recently, concerning an incident that occurred in a quiet neighborhood street in Brooklyn Park,...
View ArticleTruth is coming to the surface
The sun rises each morning somewhere on the face of our planet to give its gift of warmth and light and no doubt will continue to rise despite whatever tumult may be going on in America and elsewhere....
View ArticleThoughts of a happy bunny watcher
JoAnn and I don't have a pet in the normal sense of the word. But we do have some pets in the natural world, a family of wild bunnies who live beneath our front porch and enjoy hanging out beneath the...
View ArticleThe only thing that really matters
Life is an uncertain business at any age, but perhaps especially as we age. Who knows what is going to happen next? For example, a couple of weeks or so ago I set out for a walk, one of my most...
View ArticleMy new friend Skye
I was wondering what to write about for this post, beyond, of course, wishing you a very Happy New Year, when my wife JoAnn came to my rescue. “Why not write about how you met Skye”, she said. We had...
View ArticleWho are we, really?
Yes, we are human. We have our foibles and fears, our habits and heart-aches. How I love my afternoon visits to the coffee-shop. How distressed I was recently when some back pain paid me a visit. The...
View ArticleBetter late than never
I’ll be 87 in May. My wife, JoAnn, will be 88 in July. Hey. Wait a minute. That can’t be true, can it? Yes, I murmur to myself, it can be true, and it is true. We talk about end-of-life issues now and...
View ArticleSeeing our parents with new eyes
As I may have mentioned before on this blog, I didn’t get along too well with my parents when they were alive. I think it’s possible that the chaos of World War Two, and being evacuated from London as...
View ArticleA salute to a very special tree
I want to write about a tree that grows in our neighborhood. This tree means a lot to me–for reasons I’ll explain–but to be honest, any normal person walking past it on the nearby path wouldn’t even...
View ArticleThere is an antidote to worry
I sometimes think worry is knocking at my door a bit more often these days as I age. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in my upper 80’s, and I have to admit that I think about this remarkable situation...
View ArticleI am so grateful for this life
I am so grateful for this life I have been given. And the older I become, the more years I put on my odometer, so to speak, the more grateful I become. It’s not that my life has always been...
View ArticleWhat greater gift than joy?
Do the politics of America—or any other nation—get you down at times? Do the challenges that life brings to us all get you down at times, the experience of aging, the loss of a job, or a loved one, or...
View ArticleA journey into the unknown
I’ve tried to follow my intuition for quite a while now, certainly since at age 23 I followed an overwhelming compulsion to leave my family and home in Britain and find a new life in British Columbia....
View ArticleKeeping our victorious spirit alive as we age
It was one of the best days of my life. I was 23, proud owner of a small 21-foot sailing boat named ‘Vision,’ and I was about to sail solo across the Georgia Strait from Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island,...
View ArticleImmortal and free are we
Every now and again I like to remind myself that, as an old friend once said, “this world is not the only place.” Don’t get me wrong. On the whole, I’m enjoying my stay on planet earth, especially in...
View ArticleA place of calm
We live in a troubled world, and a troubled country. Hate is on the rise, it would seem, in America. Mass shootings are becoming more common. Certain elements of our society are being harassed, even...
View ArticleIntuition as a pathway to happiness and truth
First of all, I’m sorry my blog has been a bit quiet the past few weeks. There has been a lot going on in my life, including the very important task of renewing my green card. JoAnn and I have been...
View ArticleSome comforting words from the London Underground
I can’t remember exactly how old I was when this happened. Perhaps 12, or 13. But although I did not realize this at the time, it was an event which changed my life. I was standing on the platform of...
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