Category Archives: Inspiration

The Hana Chronicles, Month 6, Day 6

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

June 27, 2026- Hana had two kinds of fruit today. At lunch, she sat with us and ate a few bites of apple. At dinner, she ate a bit more pear. She now sits in her high chair, for both meals, She tried sipping water through a straw, but needs a bit more diaphragmic power, yet. That doesn’t stop her from trying, so we will keep going on that front, day by day.

She made a visit to Whole Foods, with her parents, and was reportedly delightfully fascinated by all the sights and sounds-“well-behaved”, in her father’s words. What else could a six-month-old be, I wonder? Everything is new and exciting. Hana is taking it all in.

She also can “explain” things that she observes. When her Dad experienced a minor mishap, in the kitchen, this Noon, my granddaughter said “Daddy hurt” and tapped her hand, to show that was where he was hurt.

While the family was at Whole Foods, I went to the storage unit and retrieved five boxes and a few bags. I am making a definite dent in that unit and should have everything in the house or donated to Goodwill, by the middle of July.

My prayers go to Venezuela, where the situation remains horrible, following the two earthquakes near La Guaira, in the north of the country. So many families have members who are dead, or are buried under concrete. I am also watching three fires in northern Arizona, two between Flagstaff and Grand forward, Tuesday is the thirteenth anniversary of the Yarnell Hill Fire, which led to the deaths of 19 wildland firefighters. The threat is never far away.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 6, Day 5

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

June 26, 2026- Hana “enjoyed” a banana, this evening. She ate a few bites, then played with the rest. Her jumper, and the tray to her high chair, were covered in banana art. This was conveyed to me by her mother, who thought a banana would be a treat for her. It was-just not especially as a food, at least for now.

Earlier, I found that Hana was having trouble chewing the semi-pureed beef that was left for her lunch. Yunhee got off work early, and so fed her by alternating meat with milk. I wondered aloud if that worked. My granddaughter looked me full in the face and shouted : “HO!” I took that, and her expression, to mean “Of course, Papa. Don’t you know anything?” I guess I know now-as with so many people, Hana likes to alternate solid food with a sip of liquid.

Hana has a robust sense of humour. She even laughs if she breaks wind, which is thankfully not a frequent occurrence and never very loud. It amuses her, though. Her laugh is infectious.

Our six-month-old got a clean bill of health from her pediatrician, this afternoon, and she is well within normal range, in her vital signs. Team Hana is doing things right.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 6, Day 4

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Posted by on in children, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values, Social, Striving

June 25, 2026- Hana sat up twice today, on her own. She called to me, both times, so that I knew she had reached her goal. Of course, she will build on this and be able to sit without support, for several minutes at a time, well before reaching 7 months.

In setting tasks for herself and practicing diligently, until she completes the task, Hana is a mirror of her grandmother. Penny always had a project or mission to accomplish. In many ways, Yunhee,, always doing some work on behalf of her daughter, is likewise setting the example. Hana notices what is being done on her behalf and part of her already wants to emulate purposeful activity. In her large playpen, my granddaughter is always on the move.

In my own sphere, any thoughts of slowing down have been quickly disabused. In keeping watch over this dynamic little girl, I will be just as occupied as in the days of community service and travel. Then again, slowing down was never my intention when I came here. Whether there is one grandchild, two or three grandchildren, the joy of passing the baton will be long in playing out.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 31

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

June 21, 2026- Hana started “observing” her Daddy’s first Father’s Day, by calling to him at 5 a.m. He slept through it, and Mommy came to get he rout of the crib. I saw all this on the baby monitor, then went back to sleep myself, Our girl is always in good hands. Hana did manage to sit up, without support, for the first time, thus fulfilling one of her father’s hopes for the day.

Aram and I were treated to grilled beef, onions, garlic cloves, and kimchi, settled on lettuce leaves, with brown rice as a bed. Yunhee worked hard at this grilling, under her daughter’s watchful eyes. A workman showed up, to make an initial assessment of some work he will do on the kitchen sink, tomorrow or Tuesday, Once that was finished, we set out for Carrollton, to visit a place called Old Ferry Donut. It is a Korean-owned branch of a chain that is popular in South Korea, so Yunhee wanted us to try it. The fare was nice, though by the time we arrived, they were out of almost every kind of donut. We managed to get three different kinds and shared them three ways. The donuts were cakier than most of the pastries I’ve had in Korean or Chinese-owned shops and more like those served in Mexican-owned establishments. Donuts are donuts, though, and I enjoyed all three varieties.

A family member once told me that I was given one job, and couldn’t even get that one right. This was one of those “out of left field” bits of nonsense that circumstances required me to not rebut. That hit and run aside, I got a t-shirt from my daughter-in-law today, that tells a more accurate story. I do have two roles, given by the Divine, and I am fulfilling both quite well. Being a father to my adult son, and grandfather to Hana, involves being here for both of them, listening and validating their feelings.

It’s been a nice Father’s Day.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 30

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Education, Entertainment, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

June 20, 2026-

The play pen doubled in size, this afternoon, an advance gift to Hana as she reaches six months. Her mom and dad worked hard on this, and she appreciated it on a certain level. She will have a lot more room to exercise and is very close to being able to sit up. without assistance. That would be a fine gift to Aram, for his first Father’s Day.

She has also resumed sleeping on her back, which will be more restful for her spine. It could be her body’s cue for both sitting and trying to stand up, but we’ll see. Solstice energy may also be coming into play here.

My day was fairly quiet- a trip to Farmer’s Market and over to Staples, for photocopying in advance of my hosting of a devotional tomorrow. We looked at our two trees in front. One of them will at least need to be trimmed. The days of yours truly going up on a 12-foot ladder, saw in hand, are most likely over- if only for son’s peace of mind. We will hire a tree specialist.

As we took a brief stroll, this evening, the strains of South Asian music-either Indian or Pakistani, could be heard coming from the ramada at Hoblitzelle Park. This bodes well for the summer nights ahead. We could go over and sit for a while, as Hana gets older. For now, though, it’s bedtime at 7 or 7:30.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 29

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

June 19.2026- Juneteenth, and the skies were raging! We awoke to heavy thunder and lightning, with about 3″ of rain falling, during the course of the morning. Aram went into work, driving carefully, on roads that were not yet waterlogged. The flash flood watch came a little later.but we were happily inside, until the rain stopped. There was no walk for Hana today, though. The stroller does not need to be pushed through mud, which usually runs onto sidewalks and gullies that form on the inside lanes of surface streets.

It goes without saying, that I will encourage Hana to resist any unlawful authority. I will tell her to respect and obey her parents, teachers and police. I will tell her that anyone who disrespects her person has not earned her respect. I will tell her that there is a system for reporting unprofessional behaviour by those who are vested with authority, and that her parents and I will be the first people to whom she should report such things.

This is the legacy of Juneteenth, that no one need consent to slavery under another human being-or group of humans. This is so, no matter the economic, political or social status of the would-be enslaver. Not all enslavement is plantation-based, as we see from the Epstein files and other accounts of human trafficking. No one deserves to be under another person’s thumb, no matter the initial enticement.

My granddaughter will know this, from the time she can walk.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 28

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

June 18, 2026- My granddaughter has a cue for me to wait just a bit, before giving her the next spoonful of food, at her lunch time feeding. With a twinkle in her eye, she sticks her thumb in her mouth. A few seconds later, she is ready for the next bite, and the thumb comes out. There is a method to many of the things that my Capricorn, Solstice-born delight of the heart does, in her feeding and in her playpen activities.

She carefully takes books and small plush toys out of a woven basket, and pushes them to one side, save the item she wants to manipulate and whose texture she wants to embrace. She will look at a book, also taking in its texture, shape and size, before pushing it to the edge of the pen. Then she will pick up a plush animal and hold it close, talking to the toy, in sweet tones.

She reminds me of Penny, her paternal grandmother, in her sweeter, gentler state of being. She also reminds me, of a friend who left this world last Saturday night. Annie was always present with a smile, encouraging words, and, if she knew and trusted someone, a hug. She and her husband, Dave, made their home available for gatherings of our Faith community, as often as their health and family needs allowed. There was always a comfortable meeting space, and afterwards, we all sat at the long dining table, enjoying fellowship and plentiful refreshments. Dave and Annie hosted Game Night, on occasion. My daughter-in-law, Yunhee, still remembers one such evening, when she was visiting me and went along. She was delighted by the warm reception she got, giving her a fine first impression of our Faith community.

That was what Annie and Dave knew best-making strangers into friends. Barbara Ann Lovell’s spirit will look upon her family, her community, those of us farther afield who enjoyed her friendship-and most of all, upon her husband. They were one another’s rock, as solidly-connected couples ever are.

May her voice echo in the activities of Prescott’s Baha’is and the city’s Peacebuilders, and Coalition for Compassion and Justice. Rest in Paradise, dear friend.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 26

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Education, Inspiration, Personal Values, service, Social, Striving

June 16, 2026- Yesterday, Hana put a small towel across her back and crawled around with it., like a shawl. She did the same today. This afternoon, she put a small clean face wipe between her top and bottom incisors and looked up at me, with the cloth hanging from her mouth. Her eyes have a spark of mischief in them. The child has a sense of fun.

She also is showing more initiative, in trying to help, gently taking the feeding spoon in her hand, while not trying to grab it from me. She also puts her two hands around the feeding bottle, again not trying to take it from my hands, but just as a n extra pair. Her father was the same way as an infant and toddler-always trying to help where he could.

I will encourage these behaviours- both the humourous antics and the helpful efforts. Both are signs of a creative and intelligent mind. She is also showing a considerate, sensitive heart. When one of us sneezes or coughs, she looks at us with deeply concerned eyes, and will crawl over, putting her little hand on our arm or chest.

Today marks 57 years since I enlisted in the United States Army. I served in active duty for two years and six months. After that, I was released early to go back to college. The military, back then, gave me the discipline that I had not allowed myself to develop. I might have benefited, actually, from staying in longer, but then life would not have unfolded as it did. So, mistakes and all, I am glad things turned out the way they did, for the most part.

I am glad that Aram chose service in the Navy. It did him a world of good, and brought him together with Yunhee. Now, he has a solid sense of adulthood-and we have Hana.

Will Hana be encouraged to enter the military, when her time comes? If I am still here, and still lucid, as I have every intention of being, I will probably not encourage her to follow that route-but rather to follow another path of service-not because she is female, but because by that time (2043-4), we ought to be on the path towards civilizational correction. It’s all conjecture, at this point, but that is where I see things headed.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 25

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

June 15,2026– It was a relatively cool day today, and Hana did not need to be shielded from the sun, but I put her sun visor atop her head anyway. We had a nice walk along the west spur of Chester Drive, and back. I will walk again, solo, after writing this post. It’s a pleasant evening.

Several writers have recently spoken of what makes them feel at home. The term “emotional home” was used in one such post, written by someone who has lived in three different countries, for an extended period of time. He sees each of them as an emotional home, for different reasons.

I have lived in several communities, 18, in fact-mostly in the Unites States, but also in Viet Nam and South Korea. I have only been in one place I positively loathed. All other places had saving graces-even when the job I held was not all that wonderful.

Were I to think of emotional homes, I am more inclined to conjure up regions, with some special places within them, that secure my sense of well-being. Here are five such areas:

New England- Here, I was born, grew to a semblance of maturity and became immersed in the love of forest and ocean. Massachusetts and Maine are my primary emotional homes, within the region. It was always to Saugus and the North Shore that I went, when it was time to be with family. There are places, some no longer as they were when I frequented them and some that will never change all that much. It is along the rocky shore that I feel most at home there: Nahant, anywhere on Cape Ann, Marginal Way, Green Acre, Boothbay Harbor,Mount Desert Island, There are forested, mountainous areas that bring a sense of my ancestors’ presence: Breakheart, Blue Hills, Mount Katahdin, the Berkshires,the environs of Jackman. No mention of the region can leave out New Hampshire: Hampton Beach, Portsmouth, Lake Winnepesaukee, Franconia Notch. New England is my emotional tap root.

The Southwest- California to Texas, north to Colorado and Nevada. My sense of well-being was cemented in the vast expanses of desert, mountain, beach towns and rolling prairie. Here I became focused, found true love and strong Faith, bid farewell to my first and most faithful darling and have greeted her namesake. Here, I became truly affirmed. Arizona was the center piece, bringing me into the worlds of the Dineh and the Hopi, the campesinos and the cowboys, the self-reliant and the co-operative. The mountains and canyons always brought solace, even when they also brought challenge: Prescott, Williams,Flagstaff, Bisbee, Kayenta, Superior, Globe, Chinle- all were welcoming and surrounded by soothing Nature. Five trips down to the river and back, in the courses of single days, drove home the majesty of the Grand Canyon. Black Canyon and Prescott Circle, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Boyce Thompson, the Bisbee Staircase Challenge, Lockett Meadow, Mount Humphreys, Mount Elden, Bellemont- these were my tonics. Across the region, San Diego,the OC beaches, Carson City, Glenwood Springs, Santa Fe, Manitou Springs, Amarillo/Palo Duro Canyon and the little towns of the Northwest Passage to DFW Metroplex are the stars along the galactic path. Plano is my anchor now, linking all that is sacred from my past with the still bright promise of years to come.

East Asia- South Korea and the Philippines, nearly two thousand miles apart, with Taiwan and Hong Kong as intermediaries, brought both the smoothing of my rough edges and a sense that I was worth a lot more than I had previously realized. I began to take stock of myself, and value professionalism, in Korea. I learned to again truly treasure human companionship, on three visits to Manila and beyond. Jeju will always be the northwestward-pointing branch and Makati, the southwestern. In Korea, I was brought into the wider family of humankind. In Manila, I was reminded that I still have the capacity to love a woman fully. Though time and circumstance have kept us apart, there will never be a time when I don’t treasure her for all she is.

Canada– The opposite ends of this vast nation are two points of my North Star. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland also helped me smooth some remaining rough edges, and re-orient my thinking, so that reaching goals previously thought unreachable became mind over matter. Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast reinforced those notions. Montreal, even in an occasion of severe mental tests, is the soul center, the heart of this North Star. On both coasts of Canada, my main connection was with First Nations people, and I was brought home to my own Abenaki roots, again and again.

Europe– Family of long ago flashed before me. Friends, long kept in abeyance, became real again. Suffering, in opposite areas of the central heartland, (Auschwitz-Birkenau and Srebrenica) was shown to me, in graphic detail, decades after the unspeakable horrors had transpired. Kindness, basic decency, were everywhere along the way-from Iceland, through Sweden, and on a winding path to Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, thence on another winding path to the British Isles. There was the expectation that I show common sense and not expect any favours. I found that refreshing and rewarding. In Nynashamn, Split, Sarajevo, Salzburg, Vienna, Heidelberg, Fishguard, Wexford, Edinburgh and Findhorn, I felt like I was among family. Europe is the Conscience Beam of my heart house.

There are friends in all these places. I still hear from some. Others, i may not see or hear from until we meet in the Light. Neither they, nor the emotional strength I derived from our friendships, will be cast aside. I hope to acquaint Hana-and any siblings she may yet have, with some of these Emotional Homes, and places that lie between them. We walk in Beauty.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 5, Day 24

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving, Travel

June 14,2026- Hana was shown a new puzzle today. It has wooden farm animals and a barn, which fit into spaces that also show a picture of each piece where it should go. She likes to take the pieces out of the puzzle. I will work with her, during the week, to associate one piece at a time with its proper spot, and try to get her to place it in that spot.

It was a nice quiet day for us, once her father got home early, after drill was concluded due to a power outage. That worked out nicely for Hana, who got that much more time to play with her Daddy. It would be too easy to figure that a pre-lingual child doesn’t miss a loved one, but we all know better-and besides, her parents miss her, too, during the week.

It rained hard, early this morning, but by 11, I was able to go and grab lunch for the three of us at Saved by the Bagel. Hana enjoyed beef and rice, with a side of pumpkin, all pureed, of course. We adults had cheeseburgers on bagels.

I read a memory that a friend had posted about my visit to his city, some years back. He has since married and moved to his wife’s town. When I next travel in that direction, I will be sure to pay them a visit. For the foreseeable future, though, I am happy where I am.

The Hungarian writer, Peter Dosa, has written of his emotional homes: Hungary,where he was born; Ireland, where he was raised and Barcelona, where he matured and where he still lives. I will offer a similar summation in tomorrow’s post.