Sometimes you have to stop and smell the hot chocolate

Believe it or not, this was my Zen calendar quote for today: “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to...

The Cafe Where Time Doesn’t Exist

There's a sweet little cafe in a nearby town that I love to visit as often as I can. It's like one of those little cafes they feature sometimes in movies, just a little nondescript place with an underlying sense of nostalgia that's increasingly hard to come by. It's hard to describe why I love...

In Case Of Emergency, Break Out Fleece

And just like that, the summer was over. Like someone flipped a switch. Well, I did promise you that I soon would be writing about the wonders of fleece, so maybe now’s a good time to do that. The season of fleece seems to be upon us. I have a theory about fleece, and that’s...

A Little Bit of Heaven in October

I'm absolutely sure what heaven is like. Heaven is a sun-filled blue sky autumn afternoon in mid-October. I had to run a few errands today, short ones, so I took my pup along with me. She always wants to go, and I would take her every time, but sometimes it gets a little warm, or...

What I Did with My Summer, Part Two

Not only did I spend a lot of my summer on a motorcycle, I spent a lot of it on local lakes and streams in my kayak as well. When it comes to how to spend my free time, I have to admit I'm a little torn. When I head out on my motorcycle and...

Good things truly do come to those who wait

The Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, I had a few things to get off my to-do list. Since they involved a lot of writing, I referred to it as my ‘homework’ since it wasn’t the fun sort of writing but more of the necessary kind. It took a few hours and a lot of brain...

Kayak outing special through grandson’s eyes

This past Labor Day Weekend was an extremely warm one. I usually don’t do much in the heat but fall asleep, but my daughter invited me to join her and my grandson on a kayak outing Saturday afternoon, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the day. The day didn’t start out...

Seek out silence for a healthful, healing experience

With all the braying lately about who we are putting on the $20 bill and who can pee in what bathroom, I’ve been searching for some peace and quiet these days. It’s amazing what human beings can get their undies in a bundle about, and sometimes they go out of their way to find new...

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch...

Perfect summer moment in park inspires realization

Today my plans for lunch fell through. I had planned to hit a drive-through and sit in the park, but I had walked to work, and in the busy-ness of the morning, I forgot that I didn’t have wheels. After pondering for a moment, I decided to hoof it to a local sandwich shop and...