When I started down the mindfulness path, Alan Watts’ name came up a lot, so I started reading him. It also helped connect the dots to one of my favorite Van Morrison songs – Alan Watts blues. I got curious. Lately, I’ve been listening to the “Being in the Way” podcast that Watts’ son Mark…

Two Stories About Steve Carey I eulogized my teacher and mentor Steve Carey in December. His wife Lee told two stories that day. I want to share them here, because they belong to more than just that chapel. The first is from his Tabor years. Steve had just arrived at a faculty meeting. A list…

A note: Written during playoff season — NHL, NBA, NCAA and ISL lacrosse — when mistakes are most costly, and how players and coaches respond to them most revealing. Publishing on a Saturday morning because it’s game day! The pass sails wide and out of bounds. Your head drops. Now your opponent is on the…

I took this picture some years ago. To me, it has always captured what motherhood is all about. I sometimes post it on this day. It honors so much of what is good, what is real. A field on an island in Maine. Summer. Two small children bent toward the earth, learning to find blueberries.…

The harbor fills without effort. Without agenda. Without questioning itself. It holds what comes. Then it recedes. Not fully — something always remains. A stillness at the bottom. A pool that never quite empties. Twice a day. Every day. The moon pulls. When it’s near, the tide rises higher. So do we. The heart, at…

Christopher D. “Flash” Burner 6/16/62 – 3/3/2026 On April 25th, I stood up at Western Reserve Academy and said goodbye to my closest friend, Chris “Flash” Burner. I’m sharing it here because he deserves to be known — and because I am so grateful to have had him in my life. Friendship is everything. Flash…

Van Morrison came on while I was driving to work. I know – shocker. One of those songs that finds you in the shuffle. And I got to thinking. The song that started it – © Van Morrison Words have edges. Definitions. They do their best work in the middle of things — describing, explaining,…

It’s mid-April. The bulbs are coming up again. Some plants die back completely in winter. To the ground, to nothing. And every spring they return. Not despite the disappearing. Because of it. The retreat was the work. Athletes know this. Improvement doesn’t happen during effort — it happens in recovery. You stress the system, step…

The text took twenty seconds to write. Thinking of you. How are you doing? They’re already in your contacts. The phone is already in your hand. She lost a parent, way too soon. That’s all I’ll say. A text came back this morning, and I’ve been thinking about it since. Good days and bad days,…

A few weeks ago I made my annual sojourn to visit my old friend Danny in Arizona. We’d spent previous trips on his land — hanging out in his RV, hiking, riding — but this time was different. His beautiful home was finished, and he and his wife had moved in a couple of months…