Category - Life Issues

Sometimes I finish reading something that makes me jump out of my socks. But not today. I am still processing Arthur Brooks’ article in the latest Atlantic, “Your Professional Decline is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think.” It’s a candid look at degeneration. Why do I read this stuff? Who likes to read about the[…]

Writer Michael McGirr speaks of summer as the silent season, where an extravagant slumber on a hot afternoon offers the luxurious expanse of wasted time. Yesterday afternoon, amidst a stunning sky of blue, the occasional wandering clouds, and a southern breeze that conducted the chimes to make their music—I slept. Up here in the wilderness,[…]

Up here on the Pend Oreille River, I am slowing down to catch up with God. It happens every time I drive the eight hours to escape. One rediscovers Godspeed, what a recent video refers to as “the pace of being.” In it, Matt Canlis, a parish priest, narrates his own journey of slowing in[…]

I thought a provocative title might help. Stein, in his book on writing, notes that titles and first sentences and first paragraphs of any writing are critical to arousing the restless reader. And when you think about it, arousal is important. “Arousal is nature’s stimulus for the propagation of the human race.” Unaroused, humanity will[…]

It’s gray outside. It’s been a l-o-n-g gray February, one of the colder ones in years. There has been the occasional tease. The sun comes out, and like bugs exposed by an overturned rock, Oregonians start darting about. But the next cold front quickly shoves everything back into its assigned place. It reminds me of[…]

Nearly every morning, I am in the lap pool, doing my thirty minutes of swimming.  It’s become my morning ritual—up at 4:45, in the pool by 5:30. I look at the clock and begin. There is some rigor to it all, but during the course of swimming, I engage in something far more strenuous—prayer. Prayer[…]