Book

WED Something happened today In the dream, I was travelling with a small boy. We were moving along a narrow ledge beside a building, perhaps six feet above the ground. There was no railing. We had to move carefully. Near where we were trying to go, there was a gap. I found a shaft containing […]

TUE Something happened today I had originally thought about allies as people. That is still the most natural meaning. A friend. A partner. Someone who sees what you are trying to do and stands beside you. But the idea expanded. An ally can also be an option. A new route. A second income source. A […]

MON Something happened today I was thinking about the pleasure of a laugh that suddenly reveals something absurd in an otherwise serious situation. I have come to call it a truth laugh, because sometimes the laughter comes from recognizing an uncomfortable fact that everybody has been politely ignoring. I know the physical pleasure of a […]

SUN Something happened today There were experiences in my recent life that I would never choose to repeat. Mistakes. Embarrassment. Systems that treated people badly. Moments when I felt reduced to a rule or a score or a decision made by somebody who did not know me. The temptation after something painful is to ask […]

SAT Something happened today I had been enjoying what I called a truth laugh, the moment when something absurd suddenly reveals an uncomfortable reality. But then I caught myself. What if the laughter was merely confirming something I already wanted to believe? What if I was laughing at my own simplification rather than at a […]

FRI Something happened today Love does not make loss impossible. Loss does not make love foolish. The universe contains quarks and cancer cells, sunsets and supernovas, babies and funerals, laughter and grief. Reality is not required to become emotionally consistent before I agree to participate in it. That was the deeper invitation. Can I embrace […]

THU Something happened today I was thinking about a fact that cannot be negotiated: the life I experience is limited to the span in which I am conscious of it. That can sound bleak, but it led me somewhere unexpectedly generous. If this is the time I have, I want to be as fully present […]

WED Something happened today This may be one of the central discoveries in the book. Reality has two sides that human beings spend enormous energy trying to reconcile. Beauty. Wonder. Love. Birth. Music. Kindness. Mystery. And on the other side: Pain. Hardship. Loss. Cruelty. Death. We keep wanting to choose which side tells the truth. […]

TUE Something happened today A conversation about the value of life was becoming rather abstract, as these conversations sometimes do, when the ordinary presence of my grandchildren brought it back to earth. A smile, a shared moment, a familiar feeling of affection did more to clarify the subject than another page of argument might have […]

MON Something happened today I liked the idea of reality becoming an ally, but I also wanted to make sure I was not slipping into a comforting fantasy. Life does not arrange its difficult events for my benefit, and an unexpected disappointment is not automatically an uplifting lesson. That would make a mockery of genuine […]