‘Tis interesting. No kitchen. The two rooms that together constitute the “kitchen” in this house are now stripped nearly bare. There’s still a sink. The ‘fridge is there, as well, sitting sort of near where it’s been for the years we’ve lived here. Between that and a hotplate set up in the once and hopefully future dining room are what we have to work with… I’m beginning to suspect our lives for the next few weeks are going to feature... Read more

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Today is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. The International Council of Nurses has been marking this day as International Nurses Day since 1965. An English Unitarian within inclinations that anticipated in some ways contemporary Unitarian Universalism, Nightingale is most importantly generally considered the founder of modern nursing. As Longfellow wrote: Lo! in that hour of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room. (for biographical details see here, for more on... Read more

I’ve just learned that my old Dharma friend, the Zen teacher Dosho Port has started a blog, Wild Fox Zen. I just took a peek, and it’s barely under way. But I recommend setting up a link and checking it out as it goes forward. He’s got a great Zen eye, a wicked sense of humor, and just enough sin in his background to remind us all that the great way is one continuous mistake… I think of him as... Read more

How could I have expectedthat after a long life I wouldunderstand no more than to wake upat night and to repeat: strange,strange, strange, o how strange, howstrange. O how funny and strange. Czeslaw Milosz I notice that today is the anniversary of many things, but they include how on this day a long time ago Christopher Columbus launched off on his last voyage of discovery. And, on this day not quite so long ago the Beagle launched, carrying Charles Darwin... Read more

It was such a high, being elected the next minister of the First Unitarian Church of Providence. Exhilarating. Affirming. Then a small emotional crash. And now, what follows… Now that we’re planning on moving to Providence, it means we get to spend a small fortune fixing up the house. Doing, you know, all the things we never got around to doing for ourselves in the almost eight years we lived here. Sigh… The contractor begins on Monday, so we’re spending... Read more

Snowy Egret A late summer night and the snowy egrethas come again to the shallows in front of my house as he has for forty years.Don’t think he is a casual part of my life, that white stroke in the dark.Mary Oliver Read more

Why don’t we get drunksit all night facing the moon“opening our hearts”as men did long ago? last night was full moon, but too cloudy. one bottle of sake soon gone.at lunchtime today you stopped byyour ship sails from Kobe at six. eight years: San Francisco, thebeaches, the mountains, Japan. Quiet talk and slow easy pace.with your rucksack to India,Europe, return ease of the world, the light rain as though we might somewhere be parting again. “Parting with Claude Dalenberg”by Gary... Read more

As I write this I understand a major rain storm is rolling toward us. When I count my blessings, living here in New England provides many of them. I love the culture. I love the history. I love the countryside. I love the cities. The roaring Atlantic ocean breaking on the shores of Maine. Northampton and the Berkshires. The Freedom trail. The beauty of Vermont and New Hampshire. Connecticut. The Cape. Nearly all thoughts of living in Providence and Rhode... Read more

Today I sent the following to Senator Hillary Clinton at her Congressional email address Dear Senator Clinton, Please, for the sake of the party, and vastly more importantly, for the sake of the nation; it is time for you to step aside and let Senator Obama begin his national campaign. You have fought tooth and nail. And you came within a hair’s breadth of winning. Your future is bright. You will continue to serve the nation and the world in... Read more