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Daydreaming on the Porch

by Oswego

Entries 519

Page 10 of 21

An extraordinary movie, “Breaking Away,” once reached for my soul and lifted it higher and higher in a year where I had descended to the lowest point in my life months earlier trying to escape th...


November 22, 2021

Our aging masks

This art work ages as you pass by. Amazing! I fall somewhere in the last quarter of this spectrum. But it’s what’s behind these shifting masks that’s the key to everything. It’s a pity most peo...


November 20, 2021

Revisiting Black Creek

I am looking now at a photograph on the wall just above the scene of a creek in northwest Oregon. It is of another special place, across the country deep in the piney woods of southern Mississipp...


Although I moved away from my first career, journalism, almost exactly 30 years ago, I still maintain an avid interest in the present and future well-being of this institution that is so vital to...


November 16, 2021

This explains it all

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ...


November 16, 2021

Slice of life

You know I was once your age, too. We’re all messed up in some way. Father to teenage son in a French short film Browsing in the bargain books section of Barnes & Noble recently, I couldn’t...


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with...


November 11, 2021

Ultimate night owl

Ah, it has come to me. This is what I will write about: the middle of the night. What shall I call it? The still of the early morining hours? The reverential hush of deepest eventide? It has be...


Not long ago I was asked a curious question by two very intelligent and keenly perceptive recent college graduates. It was this: “What was life like before the Internet?” Well, of course I cou...


October 30, 2021

Beauty All Around

I don’t travel far and wide. It’s been two years since I’ve even been 40 miles from where I live. But rather than rue this situation, I have learned that the greatest measure of happiness and ...


There was a time years ago beginning in 2003 and ending abruptly in January 2010 when I was rather “addicted” to online chat, spending way too much time in one particular chatroom. I hate to e...


It’s nearing the end of October, the weather is much cooler, and the air has that distinctive feel of Autumn, that magical time of year when leaves change color and long-ago memories of this spec...


October 17, 2021

A poignant farewell

I’m sitting here this morning in the big sunny den where I spent so many countless days, months and years with my mother when I was taking care of her as she declined with steadily worsening deme...


October 15, 2021

Ode to Wal-Mart

I yield. I confess. Although I love the romanticized, idealized dream of a small town Main Street, with the little guy doing business in his cozy little fortress, not much happens these days on M...


I walk up the steps to the porch after a long, tired but glad to be home. The streets are quiet, the sounds of children are gone from the sidewalks. I notice once again the tall oaks lining the s...


Regarding my rituals of walking in the woods at nearby nature preserves or state parks, I said to someone recently, “I mostly am looking either down at the ground or up into the trees or sky.” ...


October 06, 2021

Acceptance versus rejection

BK Shivani is a teacher in the Brahma Kumaris spiritual movement in India. In one of her talks, she says, (and I am paraphrasing) Someone, somewhere, at some moment will not meet our expectations...


October 01, 2021

Brave New World?

Until a few months ago, I didn’t know much about Hinduism, but then I discovered learning opportunities through teachers and sages on YouTube, and my horizons have expanded. Previously, I’d just...


September 26, 2021

“Ordinary mysticism”

There are times when I feel most connected to life in the awareness of fleeting experiences that come to me in little epiphanies during the day. It doesn’t matter where I am. They are predicated ...


September 24, 2021

The stream

Gypsy Spirit recently posted a beautiful and evocative entry about a walk during which she discovered a tiny stream and a house and a garden that filled her with delight and awe. Cherry blossom...


I was going through things earlier this evening as I sorted and packed boxes for my big move, and came across this poem written in December 1978 when I was 27. It was the first actual, serious p...


I’m a former journalist, and it was my life at one time when I was younger. I was totally caught up in every aspect of news. That career and way of life ended rather abruptly 30 years ago, and ...


Do you remember the surfing songs from the 60s? They became big hits and classics for iconic groups such as The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and of course, instrumental groups such as The Chantays...


September 17, 2021

Cycles

Our minds create the experience of both happiness and suffering, and the ability to find peace lies within us… According to Tibetan medicine, living in peace, free from emotional afflictions, and...


September 16, 2021

Woodland Dreams

…if thou hast learned a truth which needs No school of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and has seen Enough of all its sorrows, crimes and cares, To tire thee of it, e...


Book Description

Short essays from the interior of my life.