August 2022 Today I ponder change. The continuous movement of time, and the impact that it has on the way things once were. Some people call it progress. One thing for certain, it is inevitable. As I age, it makes me a little sentimental. Actually, kind of sad. I guess it is just the nature of growing older. At least I am glad I am doing that! We had a farmer at the edge of our neighborhood for years. A real farmer. His cash crops were generally corn and soybeans. H

July 2022 Today I ponder the amazing wonder and mystery of existence. Heady stuff! Philosophers and truth-seekers have been contemplating this for millennia. While I am no philosopher, I ruminate on this all the same. I think everyone does at some point. I’ve had several close, relatively young friends pass away recently, which seems to make it even more a part of my thoughts. It’s just a lot of questions; Why are we here? What is our purpose, especially my purpose? Wh

April 2022 Today I ponder the strangeness of the past. Especially how we raised children. I have a new grandson. Well, he’s not super new, he’s relatively new as he just turned two. Commiserate with that age, he is beginning to get into mischief. More likely, we are just less accommodating to his mischief, as he has been a very active and inquisitive child since he became mobile. But now is the time when you start to help him make good decisions. All along, my daughter, w

February 2022 I was standing in line at the grocery store the other day and I heard two people talking. They were in a penetrating conversation and not trying to keep their voices down or hide from anyone around them their topic. Their discourse was about plastic. Each was worried sick about how much is out there in our environment. How much we as consumers use and discard. But most alarming to me in what I overheard in this retail discourse was on the topic of how much p

January 2022 This morning, as with most mornings, the first thing I do is get my coffee and play my guitar. After that, I sit at my computer and collect my thoughts. I love to write and never feel like I am short of topics to cover. Things that amuse, annoy, or perplex me. Random thoughts. Stray notions. Curiosities. I have so many things that stimulate my urge to ponder. To investigate. And to write it down. Today, however, has been different. It’s a cold, blustery Jan

November 2021 Today I ponder memories. Not that chemical process in your brain that allows information to be stored and retrieved, but the actual things; events that happen when we interact with our environment. Usually other people. If you’re doing it right, and you have a little luck, you spend a great deal of your life making memories. As you enter your latter years, you spend a fair amount of time trying to remember them. Sometimes, it’s a bit like putting a jigsaw pu

October 2021 Today I ponder the journey of life. We wait a long time to get old. Spending most of that time denying the eventuality. For what seems like forever, it creeps up on us. Then one day, we are overtaken. Seemingly stretched to the limit. A shadow of our former selves. Often a larger shadow than we wish! With a life mostly behind us. Yet, we certainly owe it to ourselves to enjoy the balance of it. You can’t go back and try it again or seek a refund. You just keep

August 2021 Today I ponder reminiscing. No, not the classic Little River Band song. Although , “ We'll go dancing in the dark... Walking through the park and reminiscing” is in my head now. Maybe in yours as well. Sorry about that! What’s on my mind today is the power of recollecting memories and experiences. The art of looking back, in order to move forward. Or just to feel a little better about today. We all have these flashes of recollection. Many regarding pow

June 2021 I like to play guitar. “Play” is no way a reflection of my proficiency. It is more an indication of my passion. For me, it starts with music itself. There is nothing in my life that brings out more emotion than music. I’m choked up right now writing about it. I’m not sure of the origin of this. But it certainly is a fact. I think for many of us. For me, the guitar is merely my way of expressing this. Or controlling it? I don’t know, I just like to play. My acous

May 2021 Today I’m pondering people. We, the members of the human race. Almost 8 billion of us inhabit this planet. A planet I have traversed for the last 40 years of my work and personal life. Needless to say, but I will anyway, I have spent a great deal of time interacting with people from different countries and cultures. Tentatively at first. I was cautious initially, until I grew more comfortable with myself. As I progressed, I became much more open-minded and diverse

March 2021 I’ve been on a few road trips lately. A round trip from Florida to Michigan. So today, I ponder maps. No, not those of the Google or Apple variety. Not on a device with a voice. Not a DNA or mind map. But those frustrating, complicatedly folded, intricate paper maps that were once the preferred method of guiding us from one place to another. Those objects that your parents argued over in the front seat of the car, whether how to refold them or how to read them.

February 2021 Today I ponder the origin of the suppository. I apologize. I’m not certain where this thought came from. But come it did. Pills I get. Tonics, elixirs, injections, even skin patches. But the suppository? Somewhere, sometime, someone said, “Here, stick this up your butt, it’ll make you feel better.” And somebody believed them. And it worked well enough for someone to do it again. I had to get to the bottom of this. Pun intended. So, I had to do some research.

January 2021 It’s January in Michigan, so from a weather perspective, anything can happen. Up until now, we have had very little in the way of wintry weather. Other than it has been rather blah and depressing. Which is very typical of a Michigan winter. Exceedingly short, gray, monochromatic days. This is apparently about to change. Sadly, not the short and gray part. “They” say we have a significant weather event on the way. A blizzard, or a “polar vortex”, which is now

June 2020 The other day my wife and I took a quick trip to the grocery store. I had been getting a bunch of texts on the way there, and because it is illegal to check your phone while driving, as well as stupid, I stayed in the truck to check my messages while my wife ran in. We just needed milk and bread, so it was no big deal. She’d only be a minute. Little did I know what an adventure awaited me. Afterwards, I had so many new things to ponder about life and the status of

April 2020 Boy, was March a month to forget or what? So many bad things happened. This Corona Virus thing became a global health crisis, and we had our first confirmed case here in the United States. Now it’s April, and it seems to have spread everywhere. With that, our government has declared a national emergency. We now face lockdowns, and we are all being told to stay at home. Travel restrictions have been implemented. Everything is closing. Sporting events have been c

March 2020 Today I am pondering phone calls. Well, sort of. Really, I am pondering the little things in life. Moments. The fractions of life that seem inconsequential but truly matter. This is where joy is found. You may have heard the advice to “enjoy the little things” so frequently that you are inured to its meaning. And it’s not just believing that little things are important. There is an actual art to being able to stop and make sure you enjoy them. First, you mu

February 2020 Today I ponder the power of sunshine. Not just the radiant beams of light and heat that the sun provides to nourish our planet, but the power of a blue sky, sunny day to help heal a broken soul. I live in Michigan. Which is a Native American word for “endlessly cloudy”. Ok, probably not, but it is an apropos translation. It is February, so my fellow Michiganders and I are not dissimilar to prisoners awaiting release from winter. It’s not just the lack of sun,

November 2019 I think a lot about heroes. Not as much as I did when I was a kid, but the thoughts are still there. I’ve always wanted to be one, although I don’t think I really knew why or what that meant. Growing up, my heroes were always historical figures. Sadly, they were exclusively male. They were also never someone that was still living. It was as if that was part of heroism’s criteria, to be dead. Daniel Boone, George Washington, Louis and Clark, Sargent York,

October 2019 Today I’m pondering letters. Written correspondence. Snail mail. Because I’m old, I remember very well what it was like to use the postal service and send handwritten pages inside envelopes with stamps as payment. Back in my formative years, it was the most economical means of long-distance communication. Truly the only mode available for centuries. Even in the pre-cell phone days of the 1990’s, phone calls that extended beyond local, were subject to huge fees

August 2019 It’s the middle of summer and life is good. For me anyway. I have a new job, and I am genuinely enjoying it. I’m learning a great deal. Even at the ripe old age of 56. I travel too much but it’s generally to the same place, and that is Denver, CO, a locality I am still happily exploring. My wife joined me on a recent trip. We surveyed Denver, Boulder, and Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove all the way to Steamboat, and we got to see it in the summer. It