THIS MAY I LOOKED FORWARD TO A SPECTACULAR MIGRATION in the midst of Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, and Medford (MA). With species in rapid extinction, I had given up on this migration, much as the grey whales disappeared from migrating the 2,000 miles up the Atlantic...
As summer’s soft breath greets wisteria and peach trees, stores are closed and schools have barricaded doors. In Massachusetts, the plague still hovers close. COVID asks humans to shut bodies inside, not to shut off attention. Fear is on steroids but hiding helps...
Well you see, my work is more than my job. I get paid as a psychotherapist reducing aggression, and building compassion. My work is the practice of peace. Quakers can be passive peace-lovers. I wrinkle my nose because many Quakers remain quiet around violence,...
Pestilence and fear reverberate around us like a scary Hitchcock movie. There is evil in 2020 and compounded by a whopper worldwide virus. But that’s not the main event. Not at all. For thousands of generations, over hundreds of centuries, a great tapestry is being...
Acting in Love during Times of Fire My stomach dropped down to my knees. Holy cow! I shivered on the tracks as the train curled around the bend. It was 9 pm, Dec 16th, dark and cold. I was in the presence of something awesome like the shepherds on Christmas night who...
When I came to the Border Project for Human Rights, Mexico was under the chilly grip of winter. I left Baja California on March 1st, enchanted by the world of whales mating and dolphin pods leaping. In Magdalena Bay I traded my swimsuit for a scarf and wool hat. Baja...
How are prisons violent? Humans learn to reciprocate love and leverage power with each other. Like lumbering bears, we grow every day. Prisons stunt growth. A herd of humans can become a stampede that tramples each other. Humans howl—when threatened we snap our teeth....
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. —Martin Luther King, Jr. How can I remove myself from the war economy? Jesus’ message is to drop the sword and find...
What is power? Power lines carry dangerous levels of electricity. Queens use a scepter of power. Between you and me, all human power is finite. Yet most power is infinite. Where can I tap into power to change my rubbery life? To change trash blown onto my street? To...
I’m living these last ten days in Kathmandu, near Baktapur, Nepal. I’m living with a family—Pradip, Barsha and Prabel. The family works hard and sleeps in one bed. One night there were 5 people in a double bed. They are very sociable and close to their parents, often...