Category Archives: Inspiration

The Road to Diamond, Day 189: The Jacket

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 5, 2025- Over the past decade + of my work with the Red Cross, I have had the pleasure-and sometimes the challenge, of working with an often intense but generally loving man, a few years my senior. He has enjoyed covering the night shift at shelters, as long as his wife of 50 years has been by his side. He has enjoyed farm vacations, in his native state, in the upper Midwest. Most of all, he has enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing terrified, disconsolate people feel safe, while they are away from their homes during a disaster.

J has had to bow out of the work we have been doing together, these past twelve years, due to a slowly consuming disease. He is at the stage of looking back on his exemplary life, has had quality time with each of his children and some of those in his home state, whom he has known since they were kids. He and his wife have celebrated their wedding anniversary, with a chauffeured ride to/from a fine dining establishment. He is at peace.

When my time comes, I can only hope to have half as many memories as J has, and be at a modicum of the peace he seems to feel. I will, of course, be at his, and his wife’s disposal, during the rest of his earthly life, as will several of our co-workers, the members of our Red Cross family. Most importantly, though, I will wear the jacket he gave me a while back, and will wear the wisdom he imparted to me, inside.

The Road to Diamond, Day 185: Heads or Tails?

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

June 1, 2025- I received a notice from the airline that I’ve been using most often ,these past four years, that my accumulated miles will expire in six months. I have plans to use them, and to add to them, three months from now. Where exactly will depend on a couple of family-related matters that will take clearer shape, in the next month or two. I may be needed at that point in time, or the matter will wait until later in the Fall.

There is an energy in June that says: “Hold off; rest; take care of small, procedural matters and day-to-day interactions. This month, you probably won’t need to go far afield. ” I like that, actually. It will be enough to stand my ground, regarding July, and others’ demands and expectations for that month. It will be enough to plan a bit for September and October. It will be more than enough, still, to resolve the important, when the most important looms over it.

Much of what goes on in life is a flip of the coin. I can only hope that those for whom the toss does not go in their favour will understand that this is not personal. Family is most important; then come those extended family who deeply touch my heart; then comes the community that I have carefully chosen to serve. I realize this is all rather nebulous, but here we are. A lot of moving pieces need to be helped to find their places.

The Road to Diamond, Day 184: Age Doesn’t Matter

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Entertainment, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 31, 2025- Today was the birthday of one of my favourite Arizona musicians. Jessica Fleet turned ? years of age. She’s ageless, so it matters not what the number is. Jess and her partner, Bill Stoller, with their three or four accompanists, form Juniper Djinn-a spin-off of a Bisbee band called Barn Swallows. Swallows ceased operations about three years ago, with Juniper coming forward as a moving Preservation Hall of the great acoustic music of the 1920s and ’30s. Juniper goes to New Orleans, regularly, but mostly they are in Bisbee, or moving about Arizona.

When I focus on another person’s birthday, my tendency is to look in the mirror-and see a relentlessly maturing face. So far, there is no haggardness, a welcome respite for one who is 74.5. Age here doesn’t matter.

Many people seem to be sick and tired of May. The monthly arts and nature newspaper, 5 Senses, has already put out its June edition, about 4-5 days earlier than usual. Some of my associates are already planning for July. Of course, in Prescott that can’t be helped, since there is a major Frontier Days festival, along with the town’s signature Rodeo, associated with Independence Day. I am more in day-to-day mode, these next three months. May, for me, has been a good month-and I look forward to more goodness, and hopefully, few if any fires. The prime focus will be encouraging people to sign up as volunteers, across northern Arizona, in the event of sheltering needs.

Farmers Market has an energetic new manager, with whom I was grateful to work for the first time, this afternoon. The breakdown seemed much more organized, and in the heat of summer that’s a big deal. We were finished about 45 minutes earlier than previously, even with a busier market. Next weekend, due to a couple of afternoon engagements, I will show up for the market set-up, at 6:30 a.m. My tasks are to be simpler then, put out traffic cones and signs.

May is now done. Jessica is another year stronger, and the world is still making its way towards harmony and radiance. I am glad to have a part in some of it.

The Road to Diamond, Day 183: Standing Tall

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 30, 2025- The smug administrator showed the two adolescent friends who was boss, by turning them against one another. This was one of the plot twists in a film “Out of My Mind”, a recent film that charts a few months in the life of a 12-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Melody can not talk, but has a photographic memory. She is determined to succeed in school, despite the lowered expectations and “cringy” attitude of the adults in the school, which get transferred to most of the other students.

On a visit to a planetarium, with her parents and a few classmates, Melody gets bored and wanders into an auditorium, where Dr. Stephen Hawking is presenting, via video. Her father finds her, and notices Dr. Hawking’s Augmentative and Alternative Communication device. Her parents manage to obtain an AAC device, with help from Melody’s advocate at a nearby university. This leads to a chain of events that elevate Melody’s self-concept.

After a day of light activity, including attending the 50th anniversary of Prescott’s Central Library, I was moved to take my director’s chair over to the Community Film, an open-air event across the street. There, I was pleasantly surprised to see a former co-worker present a brief PSA featuring his younger sister, who has non-speaking autism and uses an AAC device. The above-mentioned film was then introduced,as the feature presentation. It was worth every minute, to see the love that the family, their next door neighbour, Melody’s advocate and, eventually, several of her peers, had for this extraordinary child.

Although Melody is wheelchair-bound, she stands taller than her detractors-a fact of life for all too many who “fall outside the box”, and end up shoved aside by those who can’t think outside their boxes. She alludes to this, in a final monologue to her teacher and classmates. Having been through a milder version of this in my younger days, I see the value of the long game, as well as knowing when to stand one’s ground. The latter presents itself more often than some may think.

Melody is a genuine hero.

The Road to Diamond, Day 182: Heaviness

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 29, 2025- It was hard, somehow, to maintain focus during a meeting I attended this morning and through the noon hour. It wasn’t the fault of the presenter, or of the subject matter. The air was cool, so it was not that, either. There was just a heaviness today, that stayed with me, requiring a more concerted effort to get what I needed from the Red Cross training session-for which I was an assistant commentator, to boot. It lingered, even as I purchased a dinner item from a nearby pizzeria, for evening consumption, and as I later exercised on a recumbent bike at Planet Fitness. It wasn’t a physical issue-my blood pressure read normal and I was breathing easily. There had to be some deeper cause.

In this late hour, I am reminded that today would have been the 61st birthday of my late youngest brother, Brian, who died in 1994, just shy of his 30th. He would have been proud of my service to the community, albeit at a very rudimentary level, as his disabilities made communication difficult. Nonetheless, there was a very basic love about the child, and later, the man. It was in our interactions with him that each of his four siblings developed a compassion for those less fortunate. That has informed our social and community behaviours, as much as any experiences we each have had over six or seven decades.

Those who have left us will communicate in various ways. I think now that the spirit of my baby brother was reminding me that sometimes, life takes a gargantuan effort, just to get through an ordinary day. The heaviness lifted, as I sat and read some pages of a book on the ancient Mediterranean world. Brian liked to pretend to read aloud. He would surely have approved.

The Road to Diamond, Day 181: Bright and Shiny Surprises

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 28, 2025- I had not been to Olde World Bakery, at the edge of downtown, in over a year. Seeing that there was a new sign, Gypsy’s Bakery, I decided to have a late lunch there. It looked like little had changed, in the food department, and my favourite spinach and cheese croissant was still there. The servers, though, particularly Ana, were effervescent and kindly attentive. There was less of the “serve yourself” format of the previous management, and more of a connection with the patrons. The Gen Z greeting “Welcome in” was in full swing. The new owner, who took over last year, greeted three of us who came in at the same time, then went back to her baking duties. Ana brought everything to each table, checking back with everyone to make sure we were satisfied with the fare. Another bright and shiny surprise was the menu of cold beverages, delicious fruit and tea blends that promise relief, on many a hot summer afternoon.

The energy of youth is always a delight, when put to either the betterment of society or the mirthful relief of tense or harshly oppressive situations. There is always an undertone of “Who am I, in the scheme of things?”, but that is just part of establishing emergence from the chrysalis of adolescence. Gen Alpha uses terms like “Rizz” (charisma) and “Aura Farming” to refer to one’s level of interpersonal skills. Previous generations have used “cool”, “groovy”, “tight” and “heavy” to indicate a person’s level of social acceptability. While the social dictionary of those who are aware keeps growing, the essential search for meaning in life remains the same.

After visiting a fellow Legionnaire in a rehab facility, I headed over to a friend’s house to pick up an order of sunscreen. As she guided me around the grounds of her forever home, I marveled at the sheer volume of work and organizing that she has done, virtually alone, over the past two years. There is much that remains, and I can help with some of this, yet her sense of purpose has undergone an immense boost, with the solo effort. There is relatively scant difference between what a man can accomplish and what a woman can do, using the same skills. Yes, we are “built differently”, in some respects; yet I see only finesse and strength in what any person who sets the mind to doing something actually achieves.

The year is a month shy of being half over. I am inclined to envision more bright and shiny surprises-not from those in power, but from those who are empowered, at the ground level.

The Road to Diamond, Day 179: The Last Full Measure

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Education, Historical, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 26, 2025- As close to 150 people listened, Dale Enlow, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, recited President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, in the latter half of yesterday’s Memorial Day commemoration at Prescott National Cemetery. With his recognition of the ultimate sacrifice paid by those who fought on behalf of the unity of our nation, Mr. Lincoln also called upon those present, and those of us yet to be born, to give our all towards both preserving, and extending, the concept of freedom: “It is rather
for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

There will always be differing views of what freedom means, who gets to enjoy it-even as to who deserves it. These can stem from one’s view of what is sacred, of just how much a person ought to share with others, even from one’s view of what constitutes humanity.

Yet, the arc of history, overall, bends towards a more inclusive society. However much it may move forward in fits and starts; however often a temporary backtracking or retrenchment may result in a loss of human rights, often out of fear that one’s position in the world will become lost, if others are given an equal share; however widespread that fear becomes the basis for a communal or national decision-making, the human race is destined to evolve towards an inclusivity borne of the maturity of the species.

That principle explains the eventual victory of each and every movement towards national freedom, since 1781; of each civil rights movement, across the globe, since 1921; of each cautionary tale that has come from revanchism, since the European royalists of the mid-19th Century were removed from power. We have yet to achieve a balance between individual initiative and group-focused identity, and thus will continue to witness a battle of wills between progressives and conservatives. The preservation of the work ethic, however, does not depend on playing a zero sum game of exclusion. Likewise, the expansion of opportunity to the marginalized does not require a reinvention of the wheel. As a wise speaker noted, at last week’s seminar on psychological well-being, everyone-whether right or left, is looking towards safety and security.

Our last full measure of devotion surely takes in the well-being of everyone in our midst.

Click to access Transcript-of-the-Gettysburg-Address.pdf

The Road to Diamond, Day 178: “Like Everybody Else”

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 25, 2025- As I explained that, unless there is a lot of background noise, I can hear people speaking in a normal tone of voice quite well, one of the others at breakfast objected: “Why do you not have hearing aids, like everybody else here?” While I could use a wax cleaning, the fact remains that I don’t have a sustained hearing loss, as yet.

There have been frequent times in my life, when well-intentioned people have urged: “Fit in!” I have, as the years have gone by, pretty much struck a balance between those aspects of conformity that have made sense to me and following my own path. Doing things a certain way, simply because that is what “everybody else” is doing, does not inherently make sense. First of all, no one knows “everybody else”. Each of us knows only a small segment of a given community, and can only claim to have a cursory knowledge of what the rest are doing. Secondly, we know even less of what others do, behind closed doors and drawn shades.

I have basically chosen the road map offered by my parents and other trusted elders, in charting my course and passing along guidance to my son-and the grandchild(ren), when they come. He, and they, in turn, will use their own judgment in adapting to changing circumstances. Conformity only makes sense, when circumstances are the same -as in “driving on the right hand side of the road (except when in countries where it is customary to drive on the left), showing courtesy to those one meets, or bathing/grooming each day,for the sake of health.

So much has changed, though, in my seventy four years, to say nothing of son’s nearly 37 years-or the short lives of my grand nephews and nieces. There are bound to be further changes, and even some of those will be temporary. It is the basics, those behaviours based on love, that will endure and be the foundation for a useful conformity. For those, we can hopefully count on “everybody else”.

The Road to Diamond, Day 177: The Thick and Thin of It

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 24, 2025- At Bellemont Baha’i School today:

In the midst of a pile of pine needles, my co-worker found a bright, shining earring. It seems to me that one of the campers last year did lose one, so that is probably the beginning of its reunion with its owner.

At lunchtime, part of the conversation was relative to the thinness and thickness of various piles that were raked up and ready for bagging. By 3:30, virtually all the piles were bagged and ready for next week’s removal to a dump site. Fourteen of us produced 85 bags of needles. That is no “thin” effort!

The connection between our little group and the growing Bellemont forest community is also getting thicker. Our closest neighbour, an ordained minister, has taken it upon himself to provide security for the camp, when no one is around. He also did an extraordinary amount of clean-up work-and over the past thee days. He will finish up the rest tomorrow. A good part of this is because he feels the spiritual energy of the camp.

Commitments can be thick or thin. I have, in the least popular of my posts, addressed the matter of home bases. My commitments to places in general, however, matter less than those I have to people in my life. There ought be no one “thrown under the bus”, as it were. So, while the “thickest” of my commitments are to my Faith, little family, beloved (who is halfway around the world), and community of residence, appeals for help from someone elsewhere also matter. My only caveat is that I have enough time and energy to meet that appeal.

That brings me to a broader place, with regard to commitments: My own are based on helping meet the actual needs of my loved ones, and not in feathering my own nest. Those in government, and elsewhere in public life, be they Right, Left or in the Center, whose every-other decision is based on self-enrichment are going to be found out, if that hasn’t happened already. Those whose public service is genuinely focused on the common good, be they Right, Left or in the Center, deserve our gratitude and support.

Be discerning, with regard to commitments, whether your own or those others have made to you.

The Road to Diamond, Day 175: Connecting, Havening, but No Othering

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 22, 2025- The road to resiliency is whatever length one makes it. Such was the first message at this afternoon’s COPE (Connection/Compassion,Optimism, Perspective, Emotional Intelligence) seminar, at Granite Mountain Unitarian/Universalist Church.

Connection and compassion are illustrated by acts of support, structural language (terms of endearment and understanding) and meaningful/joyful experiences. Public gatherings can be the forefront of the latter, but it is small, intimate encounters that make up the bulk of these. Consistency in supportive language is crucial-from affirmations of affection to words of gratitude. The facilitators, a married couple, offered their ingrained habit of thanking one another continuously-avoiding any tendency to take one another for granted. Finally, “me” is consistently replaced by “we”.

Optimism is signaled by confidence that comes from having met past challenges and a sense that we are building upon those successes. These can be small or great achievements. Self-regulation (breathing, healthy diet, regular exercise, proper rest) is a basic indicator of optimism. So are the practices of incorporating uplifting experiences,a positive forward outlook and a basic trust in a Higher Power. Havening is the process of self-soothing. Besides deep breathing, placing one’s right hand over the heart and left hand on the solar plexus is an example of havening, Another example is slowly passing one hand over the other.

Unity of internal and external perspectives is beneficial. The understanding that everything is temporary, whether positive or negative, encourages savouring the moment, an ethic of carpe diem, accepting that a painful day is no more permanent than a pleasurable one. One may choose to view a challenge as a portal, or see it as a hole. A broad perspective will let one view everything as sacred-whether it be a blessing or a hard lesson.

Emotional intelligence is marked by recognizing, naming and managing own emotions and recognizing those of others. Using emotional intelligence to address three basic human needs (Safety, satisfaction and connection) entails recognition that there is, in reality, no “others” but that we are all extensions of one another, in that regard. The “other side”, of conventional political and social mythology, has the same basic needs as those with whom one more comfortably associates. The key to social cohesion, then, starts with assisting one another, in getting those needs met.

The “rugged individualism” of the libertarian or conservative can meet the needs of some, while the “social contract” of the progressive or liberal can address the needs of a wider segment of society. The key to both lies in avoiding dogmatic adherence to one set of principles or methods of achievement.

In a time of uncertainty and challenge, resiliency is what will guarantee that our communities, and their members, survive and thrive anew.