Tag: life

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Ant or Grasshopper – How We Spend our Time

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I recently gave a short presentation on how we choose to spend our time, our life – planning for the future versus living more in the moment. The old ant and grasshopper parable came to mind. Are you more like the hard-working ant who struggled all summer storing food for the winter, or more like the carefree grasshopper who hopped and chirped the summer away?

We often hear about how we aren’t saving enough, whether that’s for emergencies or for retirement. Not to mention how nearly impossible it is to do that with most incomes not keeping up with costs, among other financial challenges. While I certainly don’t want to minimize any of that, I’m choosing here to focus more on the psychological side of things.

What are we saving for in terms of wants and desires? What are we expecting of the the future? And what are we giving up to get there? What if next week the ant and the grasshopper both have massive insect coronaries and die? Who will have had the better life? Would it be easier to save for the future if that future were guaranteed? Continue reading

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Together – A Poem

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I’m posting something a little different here. I wrote most of this poem after the death of a loved one a couple of years ago. I’d forgotten about the poem until I came across it recently and decided to finish it.

It’s interesting for me to see where my mind and heart was just a few short months post-death. It surprises me some, but in a good way. A little window into that time.

And while it was written for someone real, and under different circumstances than those in the fictional “Life’s Attic” (I touched on this in “Flying Time”) it reminds me just how similar death can be, whoever it is. Why we call it a loss. And that while it is that, that’s not all it is, not all is has to be.

Here’s to life!
 

“Together” by Elizabeth Ely

You have died.
Just now.
Or was it months ago?
Time has been so modified. Continue reading

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The Right Rock

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Once again, it’s been a while since my last post. With the aim to write here more often, I’m going to talk about something from one of my little scraps of paper. You know, those scratchings of random thoughts that occur, well randomly. Not to give too much away I hope, but on this scrap is written, “Myth of Sisyphus.” And here’s me talking out loud.

Have you ever felt like you were trying too hard? That you were working too hard to try to make something happen? Force it it into being. Make it happen no matter how many stumbling blocks you come up against. You keep trying because it’s something you feel convinced that you want. Something you’re convinced is supposed to happen. It just hasn’t for some reason. A reason you peg as you simply haven’t tried hard enough. And if you keep on trying, you’ll get there, you’ll get it, whatever that elusive “it” may be. Continue reading

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Flying Time

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It’s been a while since my last blog entry. I’d forgo the cliché of saying “how time flies” except it’s obviously too late for me to do that now. But there’s a reason clichés are clichés, they often hold a certain truth that can be universally felt. And maybe they become annoying to hear for that exact reason: “We already know it’s blatantly true without bothering to say or hear it.” Hmmm…I don’t think I want to think about how much time just flew by as I typed these non-words of wisdom…

The events of the last couple of years have been very life-changing for me, in that big-picture, how-I-see-the-world-and-what-I want-to-do-in-it-while-I’m-here sort of way. Funny how dealing with the death of loved ones, or other challenges of life, can end up making you feel more alive than ever. Continue reading

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Spring Cleaning for the Soul

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More thoughtlessly abandoned couches and old entertainment units. More fragrant flowers amid baby blades of grass. More birds chirping in that distinctly fresh and vital way. Springtime. Whether it’s the cleared-out overaccumulations of stuff, both literal and figurative, or all the sensory reminders of the universe renewing itself, spring feels… Continue reading

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What's Being Said About Life's Attic?

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Award-winning actress Kathleen Gati has just said some very nice things about my novel, Life’s Attic. I feel truly honoured.   “Just finished reading your book. WOW!!! It is truly a beautiful study of pure love, devotion, life, death and so much more. I savored every word and truly enjoyed… Continue reading

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Publishing of Life's Attic Getting Closer

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My novel, Life’s Attic, is being typeset as I speak (or type), and the cover art is being finalized as well.
~In the fictional West Coast town of Clementine, Leanne Porter is about to meet Jay Hanson. There’s just one problem. Jay has AIDS. Continue reading

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Surfing Dolphins at Play

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I just saw a clip of the 2003 BBC “Wildlife on One” episode Dolphins: Deep Thinkers, narrated by David Attenborough. It’s a video of dolphins living where they should be. Swimming and surfing freely in the wide open oceans. Whenever we have the privilege of seeing wild animals in their… Continue reading

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Forget Jail, Forget Nursing Homes, Take a Cruise

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The following joke/scenario thing reminds me of an earlier forward I wrote about which contrasted life in prison and a nursing home. It also brings to mind the old chestnut, “the truest words are spoken in jest.” Underneath so many of these little comedy bits are some pretty apt observations… Continue reading