Several years ago I started to attend a local Zen Buddhist center. I’d been interested in Buddhism for a long time and had practiced meditation on my own but felt to really get anywhere it would be best to recieve some instruction from those in the know.

What is Zen? Zen is very simple . . . What are you? ‘Don’t know.’ Zen is keeping this ‘Don’t know’ mind always and everywhere.

After work last night I was feeling a little worn down but managed to force myself to run. It’s much nicer to run when I have more energy and actually look forward to it, but I can’t let my mood dictate when to run. Starting out I felt sluggish & wanted to stop and walk but I managed to push through it instead. By the time I was at the half way point I felt much better and it seemed less like a chore.

Mourning the loss of a good, good friend.

This is the last photo that I have of my best friend. It was taken the year before he died of cancer. I had flown up to see him after he had called to tell me was dying. It was a very cold April in the Chicago area. We had a really good, but all too short, visit.

A motherless son celebrates mother’s day

One of the things about growing older is you start to lose that filter between your brain and your mouth. You no longer put the brakes on your true feelings. When you’re mad everyone is going to hear it. If something off color comes to mind, you’ll hear that too. The last few years of mom’s life were full of conversations that could make you cringe or laugh and sometimes both.

I’ve been asked to help promote an upcoming PBS film on depression and I’m more than happy to help get the word out. Anything that helps educate people on this disease and its treatment will go a long way towards erasing the stigma & shame associated with depression.

The following is a press release from WGBH. Mark your calendars you won’t want to miss this program.

“DEPRESSION: OUT OF THE SHADOWS” TO PREMIERE ON PBS MAY 21

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain. ~ Maya Angelo

A few weeks back I watched a story of CBS Sunday Morning about a church in Kansas City, MO. and how they had started a mission to change people’s attitudes for the better.

Rev. Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity in Kansas City, MO was teaching a series on Prosperity. Part of this series was helping the congregation to form a habit of gratitude by going 21-days without complaining. Studies show it takes 21 days for people to form a new habit. In an effort to make the lesson practical, the church purchased purple bracelets and gave them away encouraging them to move the bracelet to the other arm if they caught themselves complaining.

Some black dogs do good things.

I came home the other day to discover a new solution to a very old and perplexing mathematical problem. If a Bull Terrier owner leaves the house driving east at 70 mph and said Bull Terrier is sleeping on the couch at -20mph, what happens to the glass of unattended wine?

It may not have been the sleep of the innocent last night but I had been very much out of it, dead to the world as they say. I kept hearing “Dad, dad . . . DAD!” It finally pulled me out of a deep R.E.M. coma. A light from the hallway silhouetted my son’s head poking through the door. Usually he’d be telling me he’s home or asking for money to go out.

“It’s really bad outside. I think we’re in trouble.”