“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ~Oscar Wilde There are now over eight billion people on the planet. We each have a different psychophysiological reaction to any given stimuli, no matter how minute the difference. From forks to forklifts, spoons to spoonerisms, folklore to philosophy. Every single one of us perceives everything differently. The way I perceive the concept of something as simple as a tree is fundamentally different than the way every single other

“All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the ones that make plants or children? Go deeper.” ~Marcus Aurelius Where do we find the spirit for grit, determination, and courage? We’re all told that it resides inside us somewhere. But how do we get to it? Where do we start “digging?” How do we begin? When do we begin? More importantly, why should we begin? Let’s start with that least question and work our way backward. Why should we b

“Spirituality, when pure, connects us to the Godhead with infinitely more efficacy and grace than does religiosity.” ~Tom Robbins First, let’s define our terms. What is the Godhead? The Godhead is a divine nature or essence (not the religious trinity version). What is religion? Religion is an institutionalized unquestioning system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. What is spirituality? Spirituality is a vulnerable questioning intimacy with an infinite, unknown, and int

“War is the father of all.” ~Heraclitus Nothing comes without a fight. All life is a struggle. The muscle must strain to become stronger. A poem must do battle with language to become poignant and sharp. If an artist forgoes the tension between imagination and finished product, he forgoes beauty and truth. A true warrior understands this. A true warrior isn’t a jarhead with a machine gun. Nor is it a Viking with a necklace of ears collected from his kills. Nor is it a savage

“To be a philosopher is precisely not to be a person who never deviates from a single doctrine but to have a history of change.” ~Raymond Guess What does it mean to be a positive deviant? Positive deviance is the subtle art of bringing harmony to disharmonious systems by strategically disturbing them. It’s constructive discord within corrupted concord. It’s the ability to stir up shit for the purpose of creating healthy compost. It’s the ability to rock the boat in order to s