Creating Our Own Lives

"It is true that we are called to create a better world.  But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives." -Thomas Merton

Loosen My Heart

“I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible;
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.” -Dawna Markova

Maybe It's Time

Maybe it's time for the fighter to be fought for, for the holder to be held, and for the lover of to be loved.

The Art of Contentment

"The art of contentment is the recognition that the most satisfying and the most dependably refreshing experiences of life lie not in great things but in little. The rarity of happiness among those who achieved much is evidence that achievement is not in itself the assurance of a happy life. The great, like the humble, may have to find their satisfaction in the same plain things." - Edgar A. Collard

Day 249 #VanLife: Fifty Shades of Grey or Inside the Kraken

A lot of folks have asked about how I live in a van and what it looks like on the inside. So here's the video you've all been asking for!

What Draws Us In

"What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote." -Edward Abbey

Sere Geology

"The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light." -Jon Krakauer

Searching for God

"The desert is the theater of the human struggle of searching for God." -Jan Majernik

Day 245 #VanLife: Rubber Tramp Rendezvous 2019

Your Coming Year

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." -Neil Gaiman

The Gate of the Year

THE GATE OF THE YEAR

‘God Knows'

By Minnie Louise Haskins

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” 

And he replied: 

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” 

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. 

So heart be still: 
What need our little life
Our human life to know, 
If God hath comprehension? 
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low, 
God hideth His intention. 

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision, 
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him, 
All time hath full provision. 

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes, 
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail, 
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year! Let's all try and make the best of it! May you and yours have a happy 2019!

From CoolPeopleCare:

"Today is a new day!

You can start fresh,
wipe the slate clean
and begin again.

Today you can:

embrace kindness,
practice compassion,
stand up for justice,
talk to strangers,
ask for help,
offer hope,
listen with your whole heart,
work for the common good,
love well.

You can be the change
you wish to see in the world."