One of the living souls I most admire is Jane Hirshfield. She has a profound reverence for humanity and the gift to verbalize it. I just saw a video clip of a recent reading by her. Carl Jung said fear of death was the root of all fear. By contrast, Jane Hirshfield has this to say:One of the things that makes us deeply human is that we do know we ( Read more... )

Kingpin of the high school library gang about which Sarah and I reminisced on Facebook only last week, Russell Ramlochan was an unforgettable genius. We became friends in science club in grade 7, when he goaded me to subscribe to the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. His fascination was academic, however I've loved the deep ( Read more... )

Dropping into LJ this morning I learned of the departure from the world last month of my friend ranjtheobscure. My thoughts are with noveldevice, through whom I met Ranj. His presence on my F-list was indeed obscure so you probably didn't know him, but Ranj went out of his way to be friendly and encourage my endeavours in photography. When I started my Flickr account four ( Read more... )

The Friendly Atheist provides a PDF file listing concise answers to questions frequently asked of atheists. The last one is, "What happens when we die?" He starts off by saying, "It's not a question we can answer...."

How puzzling, that science yields evidence to explain the origins of the universe and life billions of years ago, but if I should ( Read more... )

My bedroom is uncommonly neat. Last night I dropped my notebook and pen ceremonially on the empty floor beside my bed. This morning I sat up, saw it, and remembered.

My dream world was foggy. I suppose we have some deeply buried instinct that still knows the weather, though it only manifests as headaches, sore joints and bad moods, cut off as we ( Read more... )

Thinking of you and the loss of Gerry. Today, this photo recalling a moment on Lake Huron. And something I read in Heaven's Gate, by Mark Doty:After the last breath-no struggle, no grasping at life, the easiest of leave-takings-I swear I had the clearest image of Wally leaping free, as if he'd been so ready to go, as if some space had opened in the ( Read more... )