... is there really a conflict?
Does sexual desire interfere with your ability to love someone unconditionally?
For some reason, the majority of emails I receive are about relationship issues, and the concept of unconditional love. It seems that many people have difficulty loving unconditionally within a sexual relationship. Several readers have recently asked for my thoughts on reconciling the two.
Because of this confluence of concern arriving in my Inbox, I’ve decided to post one of my responses here. Perhaps it can serve as food for thought to others who question the compatibility of unconditional love with sexual relations. So here is an extract from a recent letter, and my response:
This letter (in brief) comes from Brad in New Hampshire. Continue reading →
... early morning musings
This morning I woke up wondering about good and evil. I wondered if goodness exists apart from human perception and religious concepts. I wondered the same about evil. Does evil dwell somewhere in the universe, independent of our judgment and imagination?
We use the words good and evil in pairs. Are we implying that one cannot exist without the other? If so, are we saying that the yin/yang of human perception is an absolute truth; that there is no ultimate goodness or ultimate evil; just an eternal tug-o-war? Continue reading →
... the failure of the school system
Is self education on the rise? Is it necessary for young people to educate themselves outside of the school system?
My Son’s Fiance, just sent me a link to an article her Sister wrote in collaboration with a couple of her journalism classmates. Their story, MakerCulture: Edupunks of the world unite!, is all about the growing trend to self education.
“The word is EduPunk and it sums up the need for educational reform — reform that, to some extent, has already begun.” “What does that mean? It means people are coming up with their own ways of educating themselves. Ways that don’t include conventional tools, but rather new devices”
Self learning, and what I perceive as a failure of the educational system, has been close to my heart since high school. I can honestly say that I largely educated myself. I took the onus upon myself because the school system as it was in my day, could not address my particular areas of interest and aptitude, early enough in the process.
High school for me then, was a boring and unnecessarily long-winded preamble. I got so fed up with it that I quit 3 months prior to graduation. Continue reading →
...to winter's heart
Today is a soft and sunshiny day and I want to share it with you. It isn’t officially spring yet where I live, but through the window today, the sky is blue and winter’s colors are gradually moving out of phase.
Green shoots and flowers-to-be are pushing through the brown of winter, the birds are creating homes, and the sun is caressing my heart–reminding me of all things possible, bright, and beautiful.
Winter is gray where I live. And I feel winter’s grayness because it reflects the low clouds that swirl within me; the socked-in system of unreconciled emotion.
But the sun is shining now. I feel its warmth. I see its clear light. There is nothing more beautiful than the warm rays of sunshine in the winter of your heart.
Do you feel it also?
... and the price we pay for it
Detail of painting by John Rocheleau
Satisfaction is our primary objective in life. Everything we do, we do to satisfy ourselves in one form or another.
This self-gratification reflex of ours is far from self-fulfilling though. Everyday, we make choices to satisfy our desires, and what we choose while under the influence of this intoxicating human imperative, is often unwise.
Short-sighted satisfaction carries a steep price tag, and willing or not, the debt is always collected. Our drive to satisfy ourselves can then seriously damage us.
Continue reading →
