awareness

After a week of clouds and rain, people were out in droves in the parkland, though I saw no others sitting quietly. With all the ‘meditation teachers,’ why is meditation…

Acrid smoke wafts in over the parkland from an unknown fire. Upstream, a dog standing in the water barks loudly for fifteen minutes, goaded by its owner. Despite these things…

Even with the late rains this year, the mountain reservoir is surprisingly full, fuller than I’ve ever seen it. Public access down at the lake is closed today, so we…

People cross the iron footbridge on bikes or foot on a hazy, lazy, warm Sunday afternoon. I sit about 75 meters upstream from the bridge, and though I’m in the…

“The universe ends with a fizzle,” a would-be philosopher pronounces in America’s leading newspaper. “Entropy is antagonistic to intrinsic purpose. It’s about disorder.” Thus materialism ends in nihilism, solipsism and…

I heard a learned astronomer say recently, “We are atoms that are aware that we are atoms…we are the universe aware of itself.” That’s a profoundly religious declaration, without reference…

Woodland hawks screech from all directions in the parkland, and birds sing raucously. Friendliness and joy are reflected on the faces of the many people using the park for every…

Scientists now speak of the ‘Anthropocene Age’—the domination of the earth by man. It’s meant to be scientifically neutral term, as if a sentient species rapidly warming the atmosphere, depleting…