flawed but authentic

Am I the only person on earth who still loves flying? I love the whole thing, from the whiff of jet fuel you get as you approach the airport to spending $3 on rock-hard cardboard pastries at Starbucks that I would never purchase in any other situation.
I arrive schlepping my bags with a goofy grin [...]

My sister Laura and I were wandering around the streets of Chicago in summer - hot, sweaty and red-faced. We sought refuge in the cafe in the basement of the State building downtown, the one that looks like a giant silver beehive.
An obviously mentally ill woman came up and began talking to Laura. She was [...]

Routine can lull our minds to sleep.
Just for fun, at the beginning of the day, pick a color. Any color.
Throughout the day, look for that color around you.
This little practice can wake up your brain and show you things you have never noticed before.

We’ve all seen it so many times that it seems trite, a cliché. It is a mantra in recovery groups.
But it is bigger than that. Stop, look, listen:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
This one little prayer [...]

One of my hobbies is protesting. My involvement started when I lived in a small town that was a lively vortex of political activity.
It had begun when residents banded together with tens of thousands of people to protest the construction of a nuclear power plant in the area. When the plant was built, the people’s energy and enthusiasm [...]

Humans are not only complicated creatures. We are also complicating creatures. There is nothing we do that we can’t make more difficult and complex.
Just doing the basic thing is never good enough. We have to plumb the depths and reach the heights, to stretch things as far as they will go.
I asked my co-worker for [...]

One of my spiritual practices used to be to walk while singing a Navajo song:
Now I walk in beauty
Beauty is before me
Beauty is behind me
Beauty is above me
Beauty is below me
Beauty all around me
Now I walk in beauty
It helped me to slow down and see, really see.
My friend Brian makes 360 degree panoramic photos. Using [...]