Ok, so I was raised vegetarian and couldn’t survive if stranded on a deserted island with a fishing pole . . .

With plenty of time on my hands, I tried what some call one of the most difficult sports around . . .

I was once told if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space . . . .

So I’m trying something different this time. In the past . . .

Here are a few thoughts. You may change your mind . . . .

I’ve got a bunch of ideas I’ve been sitting on . . .

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

— Harold Thurman Whitman

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

— Ellen Goodman

From Carol Swanson of ChristmasReviews.com –

Wes Burden’s “A Christmas Journey” is a most satisfying trip! This smooth jazz album is not a homogenized set of . . . .

How can you be right when I’m right? And so a stalemate ensues. And the deadlock brings paralysis and defenses and retaliation. I call it the illness of ‘right thinking’. The following analogy is an excellent way of seeing the futility of our finite perspectives . . . .

The historic Old Church in downtown Portland was a favorite venue, especially for the holidays.

In front of 20,000 people? The national anthem was one song I had down pat.

I would often get a phone call from KKJZ, major sponsor for the Street of Dreams’ showcase of Portland’s top contractors and architects.

. . . a box of chocolates. Or like this crazy art installation I found at Burningman a couple years ago . . .

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”

— Buddha

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

So my birthday rolls around, and dad asks if I want to go skydiving. I was shocked . . .

More than a year ago, I’d purchased a fairly nice Takamini acoustic guitar. It was a perfect fit . . . .

Check this out - My music on an mp3 player . . . !