The Unclad Soul

It’s the beginning of a new week, and soon, a new month. Where did the time go? Weren’t we all swimming and grilling and taking vacations just a couple of weeks ago? Now the kids are all well into the school year. In a few days, it will be Halloween. And incredibly, it’s only 58 days until Christmas. Someone has said, “Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.” Well put. Not just a collection of experiences but also their intensity. Those are the moments that give life substance, affirmation, depth. Those are the times we remember. I attended a couple of birthday parties over the weekend. They were great times with family and friends I love. We shared food and drinks, laughter and fun, warm hugs and memories. There were children rolling in the grass, their tender faces bright with smiles, their small arms extended to receive squeezes and kisses. There were adult reminiscences, catching up on what’s new with on...

(Spoiler Alert: You may not want to read if you haven’t yet seen the movie.) I saw this past weekend the movie, “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” starring Shia LeBeouf as Tyler, Dakota Johnson as Eleanor, and new to the screen, an actor with Down Syndrome, Zack Gottsagen. His character, Zac, is a young man with Down Syndrome living in a nursing home where Eleanor, a kind and attractive staff person is assigned to him. Zac hates where he is and longs to leave. His roommate Carl, (longtime actor, Bruce Dern) is an elderly man who likes Zac and encourages him in his quest to leave. He knows he doesn’t belong there. Eleanor knows this, too, but she has no options for Zac since he has no parents or family to care or provide for him. Tyler (LeBeouf) is a failed crab fisherman, a sort of drifter and rebel who lives by his own rules. He wears the same dingy t-shirt, faded cap, stained shorts, and scruffy beard through the whole movie, and you begin to forget the actor and believe the c...

"I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a ‘life.’ I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a ...

Novelist and poet, Heather Sellers has written, "I think everyone has one day like this, and some people have more than one. It's the day of the accident, the midlife crisis, the breakdown, the meltdown, the walkout, the sellout, the giving up, giving away, or giving in. The day you stop drinking, or the day you start. The day you know things will never be the same again."  The death of my brother Jim became one of those days for me. I knew his situation was deteriorating. I knew his body was shutting down. But when his daughter Natalie called and said he had just passed away, I suddenly felt I was floating off in some moment of bewilderment. Could he really be gone? The past months had been difficult, watching his rapid decline. And yet, I had somehow become attached to that scene of him in his room in the nursing home. His big screen TV. The stack of videos on the counter beside it. The small serving tray at his side that held his reading glasses, the ever read...