-
Dealing with anxiety
Arthur Brooks—Harvard professor and behavioral scientist—defines anxiety as a chronic, low-grade fear response that protected our hunter-gatherer ancestors but now often misfires in modern life. He offers strategies to reframe one’s anxiety. Regard your anxiety as “unfocused fear.” Endeavor to clarify and name your anxiety so that it is not a vague fear lingering in…
-
Take action now to support our democracy!
Given the recent murders of U.S. citizens by Trump’s Gestapo, it’s clear that we must take effective action to support our democracy and subdue the current move toward authoritarianism in our nation. Here are some ways you can take action right now. Call your representatives in Congress: Daily, consistent communication with your elected officials make…
-
MY GRIDIRON DAZE
What I learned from football . . . the good, the bad, and the ugly It was an overcast November day in 1947. My dad Mack Mulkey, a student on the G.I. Bill at Southern Methodist University, was bursting with pride as we made our way to our bleacher seats at SMU’s Ownby Stadium for…
-
Papa’s words ringing in my ears
“Papa’s words ringing in my ears, son, you got to get tighter with your tears.” As I listened to these lyrics of the Willie Nelson song, Old Fords and a Natural Stone, I was transported back more than half a century to my Tullahoma (TN) High School graduation. Our graduation took place on the evening…
-
The Death Rattle of an Old America
In so many ways, Donald Trump represents the death rattle of an old America, and it’s loud and it’s violent. When Eddie Glaude Jr. shared these words in 2021 — quoted in I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker — the country was still reeling…
-
Finding freedom in the confines of prison
It was 1993, and I had been making my weekly 30-mile trek from my little cottage in the hills outside Austin, Texas to Bastrop Federal Correctional Institute for the better part of a year. Each Thursday, I worked with the male inmates in the prison drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and afterward, I taught creative…
-
What, me anxious?
I like to think of myself as a self-aware kind of guy—attuned to my emotions, noticing them as they arose, acknowledging them, and letting them pass. But this past year, with the death and destruction of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, followed by the election of an ignorant, vengeful, narcissistic wannabe dictator, my mind…
-
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Early one morning in May of 1992, I awoke with the realization that I was no longer tethered to any geographic location. My daughter was about to graduate from college, and my commitment to pay her college expenses had been fulfilled (for the most part). My divorce had just become final. And my consulting contract…
-
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
Fifty-seven years ago, I traveled from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. to join a protest against the war in Vietnam. My housing had been prearranged; the group I was traveling with would be staying with a family of Quakers. The weather that weekend in November tested our resolve: bone-chilling temperatures and a strong wind out of…
-
The Oligarchs Have Decided: It’s Time for Trump to Go!
My latest conspiracy theory, with some wishful thinking thrown in. The fix is in, folks. A cabal of oligarchs, including Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Peter Thiel, has decided that Trump, with his diminished physical and mental capacity (plus poll numbers in the toilet), has outlived his usefulness, and the team is organizing a coup…
-
Soundtrack of My Life
I’ve had fun putting this playlist together—43 songs starting with my childhood favorite—Roy Rogers’ “Happy Trails” and concluding with David LaMotte’s wonderful rendition of “We Are Each Other’s Angels.” While I consider many of these songs to be favorites, the intent was choosing music that expressed what was happening in my life at that time—from…
-
FIRST ACID TRIP . . . COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY
My brother Butch and our pal Rusty were roommates and students at MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in the fall of 1968, working part-time at the local Samsonite manufacturing plant. I was living nearby, and another of our crew, Nubbin, was visiting from Sewanee when a small package arrived at Butch and Rusty’s apartment with no…
-
Five Octogenarians Carry on the Handball Tradition at the Downtown Asheville YMCA
While games in which the player strikes the ball with the hand have been around for thousands of years, the modern game of handball took root in this region at the Asheville YMCA in the late 1960’s. Dozens of handball players at the Asheville Y have come and gone over the decades, but the numbers…
-
What, 82 years old! How the hell did that happen!
Yep, today is my 82nd birthday, and this morning I was thinking about what I had written on my birthday a few years ago. It described a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: A group of grubby-looking guys are pulling a cart full of corpses through a plague-ridden medieval village while one of…
-
This is what courage looks like!
A little over a week ago, I got an intimate view of tenacity and courage from seven bold women, including my wife Shonnie Lavender and our friend Elizabeth Likis. On March 13, Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards was in Asheville for a town hall at A-B Tech. Since the college auditorium where the town hall took…
-
My Friend John Hoover
My longtime friend John Hoover passed from his mortal form on March 19. Today I honor him and reflect on his powerful influence on my life. In Knoxville in 1983, I screwed up my courage and began therapy with a local psychologist, John Hoover, a tall, brawny man with an engaging and amiable manner. I…
-
Upholding Democracy in Our Challenging Times!
On the evening of November 5, I fell into a restless sleep before the results of the presidential election were final. When I roused from my light slumber around 3:00 a.m., turned on my phone, and saw the outcome, I immediately felt dismayed and disheartened. That morning on social media, I wearily read that friends…
-
Resources for Resistance
Below is a list of resources to resist the encroaching authoritarianism. Most, but not all, are specific to Asheville and Western North Carolina. Jubilee! Social Justice Team https://jubileecommunity.org/social-justice/ Our democracy is facing a momentous challenge from the encroaching forces of authoritarianism, and Jubilee!’s Social Justice Team is joining together to confront this challenge. Please join…
-
Happy holidays from the Lavender-Mulkey Clan!
May peace be with you . . . now and in the year to come! The Lavender-Mulkey Clan And now a Christmas message from Parker Palmer: By accident of birth, the Christmas story has been a staple of my life for 85 years. As a kid, it was all about the glitter and gifts, of…
-
On becoming a “real man”
Loving, sensitive, trusting, and curious when I entered life in 1943, at around five years of age, in reaction to the disparaging remarks and denigrating actions by the mostly well-meaning adults around me, I unconsciously began to believe I was unlovable, inadequate, somehow inherently flawed. Little boys don’t do it like that! Let your grub…
-
Did you ever wake up and just think WTF?
There’s something happening here But what it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware I think it’s time we stop Children, what’s that sound? Everybody look, what’s going down? ”For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills In recent weeks I’ve been wondering what the…
-
My Experience of Hurricane Helene and Its Aftermath (So Far)
For the past few weeks I’ve had John McCutcheon’s rendition of the song The Great Storm Is Over playing in my mind. Hallelujah! the great storm is over Lift up your wings and fly Yes, Hurricane Helene has passed, but I’m only gradually coming to grips with the storm’s aftermath. You see, we were basically…
-
Today, May 30, is our 25th anniversary!
Happy 25th anniversary, my darling Shonnie. We’ve created a wonderful life together filled with love, intentionality and adventure, and I look forward to the next 25 (when I’ll only be 106)! A few highlights from our 2.5 decades together: 1995:We meet while training for the 1996 Austin Motorola Marathon. 1997: We enter a committed relationship…
-
My Southern Accent
When my family moved from Texas to California in 1952, I was surprised to find that the third-grade lessons in Pomona were at about the same level as the second grade in Mount Pleasant. So my classroom life was pretty laid back until the day our teacher asked everyone in the class to stand and…
-
School Daze: My Rambling Route Through Our Public Education System
One evening a week or so ago, Shonnie, Gracelyn and I watched “Dead Poets Society” together. At the film’s conclusion, I began to ponder the course of my formal education—from the first grade through college. My initial foray in the public school system began at East Ward Elementary in Mount Pleasant, Texas, in 1949, and…
-
My Meandering Path Toward Authenticity
Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will…
-
Two Attempts to Change the Course of Our Nation’s History
One morning a few weeks ago, I was browsing the daily online headlines when I came across an article describing the lengthy prison sentences, ranging from 10 to 22 years, given four Proud Boys. Each had been convicted for playing a major role in the rampage at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021…
-
WHAT, ME 80?
An Octogenarian Looks Back on His Path to Good Health If you’d known me when I was in my 20s and 30s, a hyper-masculine, self-indulgent, beer-swilling rebel (without much of a cause), you might have wondered if I’d ever reach the age of 40. I ponder sometimes if I even wanted to. But here I…
-
Awakening to Courage
How many of y’all remember that Sixties adage, “Don’t trust anybody over thirty.”? Well, now that I’m half a century past that imaginary line of demarcation, I can look back and see that the Universe had plans for me other than following the path most travelled. When I agreed to share my prose at today’s…
-
I Was a Teenage Volunteer!
My time as a University of Tennessee football player The University of Tennessee is currently one of the top five football teams in the nation, a far cry from my experience as a Vol football player some sixty years ago. * * * Throughout my time as a dedicated football player at Tullahoma (TN) High…
-
Memories of My Longtime Friend Stewart Horn
My longtime friend Stewart Horn was born on July 3, 1942, and he lived a long and full life. He died on September 23, 2022. I first met Stewart when, at the age of 12, I joined Boy Scout Troop 112 in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Stewart, Pete Mulloney, Fred Hollenback, Chuck Millard, Carlton Sivells, Bucky Jackson…
-
A Gradual Reawakening: Letting go of my world-weary blues and connecting with reality . . . again
Was I cranky? No doubt.? Judgmental? Absolutely. Disheartened? Unquestionably. And I’d been unconsciously operating out of this frame of mind for months. Yeah, yeah, I know, given the pandemic, America’s veer toward authoritarianism, war crimes in Ukraine, and the state of our ailing planet, it’s easy to feel discouraged and even drift into depression without…
-
All alone in the forest . . . yet not alone at all
Saturday morning, alone in the mist and drizzle. Stillness envelops me. No sound but my footsteps, the drip of the moisture from the trees, the occasional songs of the birds.
-
Stuck Inside the Classroom with the Playground Blues Again
As I’ve worked on my memoir, what’s become a massive act of self-interrogation, I’ve realized that my disconcerting experiences during the first grade that I’ve described above profoundly influenced my attitude about school for the remainder of my classroom days.
-
The Ketchup Corpse Caper
One balmy June night in 1960, a small group of boys, mostly rising juniors and seniors at Tullahoma (TN) High, were gathered at the Dairy Bar, a little family-run drive-in restaurant typical of those found in small Southern towns before franchised fast food became ubiquitous. We’d met there to eat some burgers and kill a…
-
Shonnie turns 50 on December 28!
Today, December 28, 2021, Shonnie Lyn Lavender celebrates her 50th birthday–half a century! And to commemorate this milestone event, you are invited to share a memory, what you love about Shonnie, and/or your birthday wish for her. You can share your message to Shonnie in the comments section, and be sure to include a photo…
-
When Brucie Met Shonnie
Shonnie Lavender turns 50 years of age on December 28, and we’ve been together for approximately half of those five decades. In honor of Shonnie’s milestone birthday, I’m reposting my personal essay “When Brucie Met Shonnie.” And I’m inviting you to help Shonnie celebrate her 50 spins around the sun. Message me, and I’ll tell…
-
My Gridiron Daze
What I learned from football . . . the good, the bad, and the ugly
-
My Cat Chocolate
Chocolate came bounding into the world in Arlington, Texas in 1988, and from early on, it was obvious that this kitty had a mind of her own, a common trait of all felines, but especially pronounced in this energetic little bundle of fluffy black fur.
-
Will we have the courage to break the cycle of violence?
We have been given an awesome opportunity, a test that requires great courage and a willingness to face reality. In the aftermath of the terrible deaths of almost three thousand people and the destruction of national icons, what will we do? How will we be? Will we be willing to break the cycle of vengeance…
-
Neither Black Nor White
A largely overlooked book by Wilma Dykeman and her husband James Stokely made a powerful plea for racial justice in 1957.
-
The Day My World Transformed
On the last Wednesday of November in 1953, my fifth-grade classmates and I were all dressed as Pilgrims or Native Americans, costumes for the Thanksgiving skit we’d enthusiastically performed that morning in front of the entire elementary school. Later in the day, everyone in our class was given an opportunity to present the watercolor painting…
-
On Turning 78: Aging Somewhat Gracefully
Today on my 78th birthday, I’m remembering that saying from the Sixties: Don’t trust anybody over 80. Oh, it was 30, not 80? Hmm, maybe my memory’s not what it once was.
-
My Spiritual Journey
Even though both my Mom and Dad’s Texas forebears were staunch Southern Baptists, I don’t recall going to Sunday school or church during my early childhood, and I was never baptized (which according to their dogma would have included complete immersion in water).
-
Happiness Now!
You can be happy if you want to be. While you may have little control over the events around you, you have total control of the happiness in your own life.
-
Our 46th President!
Shonnie, Gracelyn, and I held hands and watched intently as President Biden repeated the final words of the oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United…
-
What Happens in 2020 Stays in 2020!
2020 has undoubtedly been a year of tremendous challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic resulting in more than 340,000 deaths so far, a severe economic downturn, and disruption of our daily lives. The Black Lives Matter movement calling us to finally confront our personal and collective racism. Plus, a President who has proven himself unworthy of the…
-
On Aging: Accepting What Is
“Don’t trust anybody over thirty!” My rallying cry during the Sixties, when I was twenty-something, seemingly bulletproof and forever young, living as though those days would never end.
-
60 Years Ago: Our (Barely) Winning Season
In the Sixties, autumn in Tullahoma (TN) revolved around the high school football team—the Tullahoma High School Wildcats.
-
Get Out & Vote!
The 2020 general election is upon us and could prove to be the most important election in the history of the U.S., an opportunity to uphold our democratic values and stop the slide toward authoritarianism. Below is information about how you can cast your vote in North Carolina and help change the course of our…
-
What We Did on Our Summer Vacation!
Realizing that Shonnie’s graduate studies at Western Carolina University were about to resume and Gracelyn would soon begin online classes at Evergreen Community Charter School, we began planning a break from our usual pandemic routines.
-
My Friend Robert Todd passed away on Saturday
I am sad to write that my friend Robert Todd passed away at 2:25 A.M. on June 27 after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer.
-
Message to Asheville City Council members re police violence
I am deeply disturbed by the recent violence perpetrated by officers of the Asheville Police Department, especially their harsh treatment of medics and the destruction of their medical supplies on the evening of June 2.
-
The Story of My Life
This autobiography was a September 1960 assignment written for Mrs. Clara Garrison’s 5th Period English class, Tullahoma High School, Tullahoma, Tennessee.
-
On Turning 77 in 2020
As I was writing this for my seventy-seventh birthday, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail flashed into my consciousness: A couple of grubby-looking guys are pulling a cart full of corpses through a plague-ridden medieval village while one of them periodically bangs a gong and…
-
2020 . . . So Far
You may have seen that meme that was going around social media a week or two ago: “Dear 2020, none of this sh*t was on my vision board.” Well, life so far in 2020 has presented a number of unforeseen challenges, any one of which would have been sufficient to disrupt my family’s normal life…
-
Every student deserves a Ms. Mitchell
Most of my teachers have faded into a nameless, faceless blur. However, there was one savior in the midst of my 12-year confinement. Ms. Mitchell came to Bel-Aire Elementary (Tullahoma, Tennessee) fresh from the University of Tennessee.
-
With your support we made it!
YES! We made it! Shonnie’s breast cancer diagnosis in November and Gracelyn’s intuitive sense that it was essential to remain near her mom at all times, led to weeks of unsettledness and uncertainty for our little family.
-
Podcast: Finding My Way Back Home
“Finding My Way Back Home” recounts my journey from toxic masculinity to a more mindful manhood, a voyage that includes participating in a transformational workshop, peeling back the encrusted layers of machismo, being dumped by a lover who finds my newfound vulnerability unmanly, reconciling with my beloved daughter, and serendipitously meeting the woman of my…
-
The Roman Room: Favorite Watering Hole of My Youth
Fifty-six years ago, New Year’s Eve 1963, I was slogging through six or eight inches of wet snow toward an evening at my favorite watering hole, the Roman Room. A junior at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, I was trying life as a normal student having been kicked off the UT football team after…
-
Seventy-eight years ago today . . .
Seventy-eight years ago today, Sunday, December 7, 1941, my dad, Mack Mulkey, a recent college drop-out working at the local Dr Pepper plant, drove a borrowed pickup truck the fifteen miles down Highway 356 from his home in Dallas to Irving, Texas . . .
-
Pry Me Off Dead Center
O persistent God, Deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle. Pressure me that I may grow more human not through the lessening of my struggles but through an expansion of them that will undamn me and unbury my gifts.
-
Podcast: A Tale of Two Daughters
“A Tale of Two Daughters” is the story of how, and why, I slipped the surly bonds of toxic masculinity and transformed from emotionally-stunted misogynist to awakened advocate of equality, from feckless father to devoted dad, as America changed with me.
-
Evergreen—A charter school committed to becoming racially inclusive
Evergreen Community Charter School is currently taking significant steps toward becoming a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.
-
How John Hoover Inspired Me to Transform My Life
In Knoxville in 1983, I screwed up my courage and began therapy with a local psychologist, John Hoover, a tall, brawny man with an engaging and amiable manner. I immediately had the sense that I could trust John and that it was safe to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with him.
-
Thank you, Howard Hanger, for keeping the main thing the main thing!
Thank you for the huge role you’ve played in our lives, Howard. Thank you for keeping the main thing the main thing. Thank you for being you.
-
My One and Only Sex Education Class
In 1958 during my sophomore year at Tullahoma (Tennessee) High School, every boy in the school was ordered to the gymnasium bleachers with the male teachers for a sex education talk by a local physician, Dr. Ralph Brickell.
-
We were married 20 years ago today!
Early in 1999, Shonnie, in her professional capacity, was setting up at a health fair at the Asheville Civic Center. While we rather liked being committed to one another but not married, we’d discussed matrimony from time to time. Since I was leaving town for a few days, I was moved to pop the question,…
-
A Serendipitous Encounter
Shonnie and I were married at Bend of Ivy Lodge outside Asheville 20 years ago tomorrow, May 30. In honor of that occasion, over the next few days I’ll be posting a few episodes from my memoir-in-progress that tell the story of (1) how we met, (2) our wedding weekend, and (3) the life we…
-
Finding My Way Back Home Redux
It was a warm June evening in 1961, the night of my graduation from Tullahoma High School. I’d just returned to Tennessee from playing in a high school all-American football game in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was feeling cocky and impatient, eager to get the post-graduation celebration underway.
-
Introduction from my book Happiness Now
You can be happy if you want to be. While you may have little control over the events around you, you have total control of the happiness in your own life.
-
Happy New Year 2019!
January 1, a new year, some might say a clean slate. During my wild impetuous youth, the first day of the year typically meant horrendous hangovers and, at some point, the hair of the dog. In recent decades, however, January 1 has often been a day of tremendous importance to our family.
-
Finding My Way Back Home
In 1943, I entered life a unique, loving, vulnerable, entirely authentic little being. Before long, however, in reaction to the insensitive, thoughtless, or ignorant words and actions of the mostly well-meaning grown-ups around me, I gradually began to change.
-
My friend Harry Nelson
My friend and former brother-in-law Harry Nelson has died.
-
My essay is featured at the Washington Post!
Yes, I’m excited today because my personal essay “With over 40 years between the birth of my two daughters, I am two different fathers” is featured at the Washington Post On Parenting section.
-
Bobby Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago today.
“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”
-
I Turn Three-Quarters of a Century Old Today
Seventy-fucking-five. Three-quarters of a century. Thirty percent of the time the U.S. has existed. In my twenties, seemingly bulletproof and brimming with bravado and condescension, I’d sometimes rail, “Don’t trust anybody over 30.” Anyone in their seventies, in my mind, was ancient and useless.
-
Letting go of fear, ill will, and my trusty six-gun
Well, they didn’t pry it out of my cold, dead hands. But my only remaining firearm has just left the premises.
-
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Co-op
We popped into French Broad Food Co-op during the Women’s March in Asheville on Saturday for a few snacks and something to drink. And as I wandered the aisles, I thought, maybe it’s time to re-up our membership at the Co-op. Then, today I found this piece I wrote almost 20 years ago (March 2,…
-
Happy Holidays from the Lavender-Mulkey Clan!
Wow, 2017 is about to come to an end, and in some respects, none too soon. But despite the extraordinary political challenges we’ve confronted in our nation this year, 2017 has been a fulfilling time in many ways for our little family.
-
A Number’s Game: Does Age Really Matter in A Relationship?
Shonnie and I were recently interviewed for the BedLoveBeyond podcast, this episode about couples with significant age differences (Ours, by the way, is 28 years.).
-
After the Funeral
When you told me you needed a drink-drink and not just a drink like a drink of water, I steered you by the elbow into a corner bar, which turned out to be a real bar-bar,
-
Saturday night family dance
When the Avett Brothers began to sing “No Hard Feelings,” Shonnie walked over, embraced me, and without exchanging a word, we began to slow dance to the music.
-
How to help Houston
Suggestions on how to help in Houston from Our Revolution
-
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts
-
An Open Letter to My Daughter Gracelyn in the Era of Donald Trump
Today I write this letter to you so that you might better understand the tumultuous transformation that’s currently underway in our nation.
-
We shouted out, “Who killed democracy?” when after all, it was you and me.
I believe we, the citizens of this nation, have been asleep for the past several decades. We began to pay more attention to our TV shows, our favorite celebrities, our sports teams, our fancy cars, our iPhones, and making money to buy more stuff than we did to our communities and the fabric of our…
-
Becoming Myself
Nothing to live up to, Nothing to live down. No one to castigate, No one to crown . . .
-
Failing some tests is truly painful.
I am a recovering racist. I grew up white in the South of the 50s and 60s. Most of the schools I attended were segregated. And I have rarely had more than superficial contact with men and women with skin color darker than mine.
-
The Entire Journey–an astounding Super Bowl ad . . . from 84 Lumber
Brighten up your day with this poignant ad from 84 Lumber. Better bring some tissues.
-
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
An essay I wrote during the Bush administration in 2003 that’s highly relevant today.
-
Presidential inaugurations I’ll always remember
The first presidential inauguration I attended was Richard Nixon’s in 1969. Well, I guess I should say that I was actually there for the counter-inauguration . . .
-
Happy New Year from the Lavender-Mulkey Clan!
Well, another year has passed, and what a year it’s been. It will be intriguing to see what 2017 will bring. In the meantime, Shonnie, Gracelyn and I want to share what we’ve been up to in 2016. And, if you’re willing, we’d like to hear what’s going on in your life, too.
-
Talking the 2016 post-election blues
On a warm Texas morning on Wednesday, November 3, 1948, I remember my mom, Sue Mulkey, a life-long Democrat, gleefully asking our next-door neighbor, “Well, how do you like our new president?” Defying the predictions of almost every pundit and pollster, President Harry Truman, who had succeeded to the presidency when FDR died, had won…
-
Donald Trump’s hyper-masculine facade
One might think that Donald Trump is brimming with high self-esteem. He is not. What Donald Trump demonstrates is pseudo-self-esteem. He unconsciously hides his fears, insecurities, and self-doubt behind a façade of hyper-masculinity, aggressiveness, belligerence, and hostility.
-
The Family Dance
It was Saturday, and that meant pizza and homemade ice cream night at the Lavender-Mulkey home. And, as frequently happens, it was time for a family dance.
-
It’s In Every One Of Us
For your viewing pleasure on International Day of Peace.
-
In the wake of 9/11 how will we choose to be?
I wrote this op-ed for the September 15, 2001 edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times. As you read this my wife, Shonnie, will finally be home. That will never be said again for thousands of our fellow citizens. I sit here by myself early Thursday morning. Over the past two days, I have moved from shock…
-
Breathing new life into my purpose
I wrote this on December 31, 2010 and am reposting it in honor my daughter Gracelyn’s 6th birthday today. * * * “What is your purpose in life?” the guardian of the gate at the men’s retreat demanded. “To work toward a more compassionate, just and sustainable world,” I immediately replied. “You may enter!” I…