Category: Phlog

  • Day 15: Orange

    photo of orange oak leaves in a winter forest

    They’re not really this orange. More like dingy rust. But I cranked the Orange slider all the way up to “Impress People On Facebook,” and away we go.

    Check your facts, Friends.

  • Day 14: Empty Chairs

    photo of an empty park bench casting a shadow on snowy ground

    Astute followers of this page with rudimentary astronomy skills will notice my schedule has deviated from the original “walk before 9am” rule put forth on Day 1.

    Last week the DOAE issued an edict directing me to complete at least one hour of work at my Official Station before engaging in any such unproductive frivolity as Walking Through Woods As Means of Healing Myself and the World.

    Ever the obedient comrade, I have complied.

    Luckily for us all, my Official Station (Ante Meridiem) consists of a dining room table, a notebook, and a guitar.

    Productivity has increased.

  • Day 13: Sometimes That’s All There Is

    photo of tall trees with bare branches reaching up into a gray winter sky

  • Day 12: Take Me To the River

    photo of a river in winter with the sun rising over the trees in the background

    Wash me in the water.

    Well, not today. But you know. When it’s warmer.

  • Day 11: Big Bend

    photo of a river bend in a winter woods with blue sky and snow

    Past the half way point in my four week new-year-whatever-this-is. Feels like rounding the bend and heading home.

  • Day 10: That Doesn’t Belong Here

    Photo of a graffitied concrete slab in the snow

    Twice now, I’ve written then deleted lengthy, half-completed essays about the myriad ways politics and religion, particularly Christianity, are inherently connected and inseparable.

    But all that does is get us in the weeds. You either love God and your neighbors as if they were you, or you don’t. All other laws hang on those.

  • Day 9: Multi-Use Lane

    photo of a deer on a snowy walking path through the woods

    Please consider compassionately: “Bike lanes” aren’t just for tree-hugging cyclists. They are multi-use spaces, part of a holistic non-motorized public transportation plan that makes room for all manner of non-motorized transport.

    Wheelchair-bound homeless people, for instance, greatly appreciate having space on the road, particularly in winter, when not enough warm, able-bodied folk care enough to clear the sidewalk.

    Folks, we can do this. One way or another, space can be made. If there is room in our hearts, there is room in our world.

  • Day 8: Sunrise

    Photo of the sun rising on a snowy path through the woods

    Swiftly flow the days.

  • Day 7: One Foot

    Photo of trail through a snowy field with the sunrise rising through trees in the background

    …and then the other. Repeat.

  • Day 6: Fifty

    Day 6: Fifty

    Photo of the sun rising behind some tall, glowing ornamental grasses

    Starting my fifty-first year today.

    So I’m probably past half way on this thing, and I’m still not sure what it’s going to be. That’s ok. We’re all just building it as we go. People who seem too sure about things make me suspicious anyway.

    I mean, yeah, there’s science and facts and stuff, like how it took a little more than eight minutes for the light from the sun to reach these grasses. I’m sure about that.

    But now what? Now what do we do?

    Jesus, and pretty much all the divine figures through history, say it all boils down to loving God and each other. Seems simple in theory, but somehow we mess it up. Somehow, some people read that and then say to some other people, “You’re an abomination,” which seems incongruous to me.

    Some congruity would be nice. Some congregation.

    Yesterday quite a few different people wished me a happy birthday. I suppose that’s a start. Or maybe even a half-way.

    Whatever it is, whatever this is, thank you for being with me.