The German teacher, Eckhart Tolle, refers to the pain body” as the the state where we humans get stuck in our emotions. As opposed to being “in our heads,” being in the pain body is gut-wrenching! Due to the some trauma and some cultural messages about manhood, I hid my feelings for forty years, I …

Spending time with a good friend, I was able to admit something out loud that scares and depresses me. Ready for this? Most mornings I wake up with a sense of dread. Yup. My first feeling as I open my eyes is fear. My friend looked at me and said, “You, too?” There have been …

Over the last couple of days, we’ve done a lot of traveling and a bit of hiking in the Catskills and beyond. On Sunday, we drove to the western edge of New York where the Delaware River separates this state from Pennsylvania. On the way, we drove through a number of small towns like Livingston …

We enjoyed the first annual Hurleyville Performing Arts Festival on Saturday. It was a picture-perfect Spring afternoon, so it felt glorious to be outdoors in the sun, enjoying some original music and the vibe of shared community. In-between sets, we shopped for some new hiking boots and got a real education in buying the right …

Yesterday was a doozy! After leaving Katonah, NY, we followed the directions our RV app gave us (remind me to question its routes) and arrived in Sullivan County at the campground where we were set to spend the next 8 nights. That was the plan. Before I give you the play-by-play, let me just say …

Yesterday, I wisely chose to do less. This is not my default programming. I come from a long line of plate spinners who can hop on one leg while whistling Rhapsody in Blue. So, opting to pick a few things to accomplish during a given day – instead of seventeen – is a new paradigm …

When our daughter, Steph, used to come home after being away for an extended period, it would take her some time to settle in. Then, it would be difficult to leave because she HAD settled in! I can relate to this because every time we spend more than one week at a place, I feel …

I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth repeating. As a boy and a young man, most of my adult, male role models were staunch supporters of the concept “real men go at it alone!” There were variants that included others like “behind every successful man is a smart woman” or “there’s no ‘I’ in …

A long-held dream of mine was to write a bunch of new songs for what I call “big people” and release them on a CD. I waited long enough that CDs are no longer popular, so I’ve posted them digitally on a site called Bandcamp. The collection of 16 songs is called “Create Without Caution” …

An American RV is not made to withstand the daily rigor of full-time travel. The manufacturers, watching their bottom line and trying to keep trailers light, make decisions that cause many of the interior and exterior parts to need repair or replacement. It’s just the way it is. As I write this, our good friend …