Welcome,

In 1973, I listened to a talk by Buckminster Fuller. He came to our college to give a speech because he was a leader in changing times as a futurist, author, designer, and inventor (who created the geodesic dome). He changed how humans look at and participate in the world. As part of the team that brought him to our college to speak, I was able to have a one-on-one with him. In our conversation, I asked him about the term “Spaceship Earth,” which he coined and popularized. He said he came up with this term because we are all gathered together on this blue spinning ball hurtling at about 67,000 miles per hour around our sun while our Milky Way Galaxy is moving through space at an astonishing rate of 1.3 million miles per hour. We are on a spaceship moving through space in time.

His framework helped me to see how fragile, tentative, and surprising our existence is as we all blast through space together. In this light, I know that I am responsible for showing up to you, my fellow passengers, and myself while we are on this journey together. One way to do this is to share me transparently.

Therefore, this site shares things I’m passionate about and things that keep me engaged with life. They include; meditation, the books I’m writing, the art I’m creating, links to a YouTube channel, and the old film reviews I’ve written.

WELCOME

Meditation:

There are two sections on this website on meditation. One part explains what meditation is, in addition to the benefits, goals, and qualities of meditation. The second section provides information and instructions on meditation, including practical considerations.

My first meditation experience was in 1967, which means I’ve been sitting for over 50 years. For some years, my frequency of sitting has been sparse. However, in the last 30 years, my practice has been almost daily. If you are interested in meditation as a way to learn more about how to be present, reduce stress, and gain insight into yourself and the world around you, then feel free to download the instructions in the “How to Meditate” section.

Books:

Falling into Freedom

The book was published in 2018 and received a “Pinnacle Book Achievement Award” for best personal growth book. Falling into Freedom tells the story of how I turned my back on the life I’d been leading and set out to find personal freedom. I had been caught up and shackled in the ebb and flow of my emotions, feelings, and thoughts while finding pleasure in acquiring things. My quest began on the edge of a cliff and launched me on a series of adventures, ending with an intense and sublime awakening in a monastery in England.

Principles of Personal Freedom

In Falling into Freedom, I talk about five principles that I learned which enabled me to find a deeply satisfying personal freedom. This isn’t the kind of freedom where one can do whatever one wants with no ramifications; it is the freedom to be unencumbered by the past, the stories we live by, and the dialogue we tell ourselves. It is about living in the present moment.

Long Walk Home

Long Walk Home will be about some of the many valuable lessons I learned after discovering the five principles of freedom I describe in Falling into Freedom. It reveals how, in the past, I failed at intimate relationships and, in these failures, how my actions became unconscious. Discovering the root causes of this behavior, I learned more about how to own my actions and make amends to those I hurt.

Others may be on the horizon, and I’ve got a lot of work on my plate.

Art:

My mother was an abstract expressionist. Through her paintings, I saw glimpses of her thoughts, feelings, and what went on inside her. Often, her paintings were on the dark side, brooding or making a statement about a social issue, but she also had a funny, whimsical side. She painted in watercolor and acrylic, and I loved seeing the range of her work. It is enough to say it was through her work that I began to see and appreciate the woman she was, not just my mom. A few years before her passing, she said, “I think everyone has some form of art inside them.”

I took this statement to heart and wanted to do something that both honored her and reflected the kind of color and design residing within me. I recalled drawing a single in a circuitous way was how I made myself look busy in high school. By keeping my head down, with pen in hand, I could keep quiet and look studious while ignoring much of what the teachers were saying. By remembering the attentive peaceful trance drawing put me into, I started making the pieces you see in the Art section of this site.

Film Blog:

I love films and enjoy reviewing them in a quirky way. Films give me a glimpse into how others see and interpret the world. Often, they transport me to other times and places, which can be very entertaining. Blogging about this fantastic art form allows me to write about a subject I care about and to share my thoughts about the films I see. For over ten years, I wrote a film/movie blog until the COVID Pandemic hit and the movie theaters closed down. Although the theaters are open again, and I am a regular, seeing two-three films a week, I don’t have enough time to write reviews. I may get back to it at some time. But for now, what you see is most of the films I saw from 09/2007 - 03/2020.