flawed but authentic

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 [...]

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 [...]

“The average man votes below himself;
he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one.
A man ought to vote with the whole of himself,
as he worships or gets married.
A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach,
his eye for faces and his ear for music;
also (when sufficiently provoked) [...]

Embarrassing Confession: When I read the love poem that Sue posted, my first thought was “Pablo Neruda. Oh yeah! Il Postino!”
If you name a poet, there’s a 78% chance that I’ve never heard of him or her. It’s not that I’m a hater of poetry, it’s more like: I’m mortifyingly ignorant.
With that said, I DO [...]

One of them, anyway…
 

Sonnet XVII
 

 
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of [...]

There is a fun little year-end list over at Huffington Post called “The Seven Habits of Highly Spiritual People.” Hint: It’s not about what religion you are.
Makes sense to me:
#5
They Count Blessings in Small Wonders.
They do not expect Spirit to appear accompanied by fire and brimstone and a big neon sign flashing in the sky. [...]

You might be familiar with the story of the soccer players who survived a plane in the Andes from the movie “Alive.” The most sensationalistic part of their story is that some of them resorted to cannabalism to stay alive for two months in the snowy mountains.
 I read an article about Nando Parrado, one of the survivors, [...]