Reboot, Rejuvenate, Resurrect

Dearest Reader, I am reading and writing later than usual because it is Saturday, the Saturday before Christmas. The sun, blazing through the window, is making the smoke produced by the smoldering sage visible. This Saturday morning’s vibe is one of ease. I read these words, “Believing is all a child does for a living.” Kurtis Lamekin, poet Tis’ the season when this is literally truer than any other. Mark Nepo who used the quote in, “The Book of Awakening,” said to our detr

PRECOCIOUS “Showing the qualities or abilities of an adult at an unusually early age/strong interest in things and topics beyond their years.” My precocious great-grandnephews and their father stopped by after school and the conversation arose around something that the older great-grandnephew wanted. Experience has taught all of us that we can land in a loop of epic proportion when he thinks he can “out” rationalize us (remember he is precocious). My grandnephew and his wif

DON’T NEGLECT THE NEED It is December 1, 2025, Monday morning at 4:36 AM. The sage and the candle are adding ambience to the stage for my morning writing. The aroma triggered a memory. I remembered reading a line about sage burning, “Light the sage. When it has done its work, it will extinguish itself.” A bundle of sage always last for weeks. I light the same bundle day after day. It burns for a few minutes and then it goes out. The few minutes of smoldering cast its aroma,

DECOMPRESSION It took me two days to realize what I was doing – decompressing from vacation. I had watched a movie, “Last Breath” starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, on the return flight from vacation. It is storyline of a group of saturation divers who are dispatched to repair underwater pipelines that transport crude oil. It is a true story and worth watching. Two things remained with me after watching: It had never crossed my mind that underwater pipelines needed main

GREAT LISTENER “Describe someone you admire as a great listener,” was the instruction given in a book that I am currently reading. Improving my listening skills has been a quest of mine for many years and I would like to think that I have worked my way into being a pretty good one. But the question was not addressed to my listening skills. The word, “great,” at first made it a bit difficult to answer the request. People who talk a lot are generally not great listeners – my

CURATED MEMORIES This is not a boast – I can assure you of that – 2025 has been year of funerals. I have attended enough (live and virtual) or been well acquainted with families of the deceased to notice a common thread. Family and friends curate memories of their loved ones. (curate as a verb means to carefully choose, organize and present content or items) Those sharing remarks carefully select and assemble memories that speak with specificity about the deceased and the imp

SABOTAGE I often pause to think about a word as defined by Webster juxtaposed on my experience with the word. Sabotage (to deliberately destroy, damage or obstruct something) is the current word. Why? I am trying to change a bad habit or two. Everything about the definition of sabotage has a negative connotation. However, thinking of my saboteurs, I must say that my day-to-day interactions with them may be negative long-term, but they are often pleasurable and seductive.

LOVE AND HATE Everybody loves to travel…not true…I love traveling for a lot of reasons. Traveling breaks rituals and routines which is why some people don’t like to do it. I love that travel breaks my routine. I hate that travel breaks my routine. Confused? Keep reading. Both ritualistic or routine-driven, accurately describe me. Were you a thief surveilling my house, it would take you exactly zero weeks to know my routine. Once a routine is established, I work to keep it g

SERENDIPIDITY My favorite son and only child (a kid at heart) stopped by in the middle of the afternoon to retrieve his emotional...