The events and issues, prob­lems and tri­umphs of my life, can be traced to an array of con­ver­sa­tions. They occur some­where along the net­work of con­nec­tions between the indi­vid­ual that is my “self” and the oth­er indi­vid­u­als which com­prise my body and those, along with me, of which the uni­verse is com­posed.

The offer­ings here reflect five divi­sions of an expand­ing scale of con­nec­tions. My cur­rent state of being is influ­enced by the qual­i­ty of com­mu­ni­ca­tion which is hap­pen­ing at any and all times. When the flow is equani­mous, I am con­tent. When there is resis­tance or con­flict, I expe­ri­ence some sort of trou­ble and the emo­tions which go with it.

The point of the hero’s jour­ney is to heal the king­dom, whether it is the self, the fam­i­ly, the com­mu­ni­ty, or the world, etc. Therefore these pages are arranged accord­ing to the scale of the con­ver­sa­tion, begin­ning with the short­est, though by all means not the least impor­tant, con­nec­tion, the one with myself. 

Individual
Posts relating to individual personality, perception, growth, and development.

This theme deter­mines how I view myself. Who am I? What is the sto­ry of my life? What is my iden­ti­ty, my val­ue? Why am I here? The beliefs about myself deter­mine whether life is good or is hell on earth. My atti­tudes, tal­ents, and attrib­ut­es com­bine to form my per­son­al­i­ty. That is the inter­face that I present to the oth­er con­nec­tions which make up my life. Some cul­tures define the indi­vid­ual with a name, and occa­sion­al­ly that name changes with rela­tion­ships and cir­cum­stances. As Rumi said, “No one knows [my] name until [my] last breath goes out.”

Relational

Posts con­cern­ing the way in which two or more peo­ple or things are con­nect­ed.

This theme deals with how I con­nect with some­one or some­thing else. This con­nec­tion seems to be nec­es­sary for prop­er growth. My close ties with oth­ers teach me, sup­port me, heal me. They pro­vide the ten­sion for me to become more than my ego. They offer an oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice my skills, share my gifts, and expe­ri­ence inti­mate con­nec­tions with oth­er beings. The chal­lenges I face in rela­tion­ships invite me to exam­ine my lim­it­ing beliefs and to risk the pro­tec­tion of iso­la­tion for the rewards of belong­ing.

Societal

Posts relat­ing to groups, com­mu­ni­ties, cul­ture, soci­ety, pol­i­tics, and inter­na­tion­al rela­tions.

John Donne said, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” Each of us has had, at least for a while, a con­nec­tion with some kind of a group, if only a con­nec­tion to the beings who cared for us as chil­dren. Much of my sto­ry has been shaped for bet­ter or worse by my fam­i­ly, neigh­bors, school, and work and social envi­ron­ments. The dance between auton­o­my and being includ­ed ener­gizes my beliefs about myself and oth­ers. Opportunities to be seen and sup­port­ed are often coun­ter­bal­anced by the dam­age of pro­jec­tions and prej­u­dice. Few of us sur­vive, let alone thrive, in iso­la­tion. Therefore, whether on the city block or the world stage, how I show up with oth­ers will great­ly impact my life sto­ry.

Environmental

Posts relat­ing to the aggre­gate of sur­round­ing things, con­di­tions, or influ­ences; sur­round­ings; milieu.

I live in a world which is part of a larg­er uni­verse. Quantum the­o­ry tells me that anoth­er kind of uni­verse lives with­in me. As a cell in a larg­er body, I am in rela­tion­ship to very oth­er being, “liv­ing” or not. I ignore their influ­ence on me and my impact on them at my per­il. Achieving har­mo­ny with nature is not only a hap­py notion; it is a neces­si­ty. 

Spiritual

Posts relat­ing to ener­gies seen and unseen, high­er pow­ers, and the con­nec­tion to every­thing in the Universe.

There is a lot more going on around me than I can sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly mea­sure or dis­cov­er with my known phys­i­cal sens­es. Whether I choose to ascribe them to a god or gods, to a uni­fy­ing spir­it, or to some oth­er con­struct, there are forces beyond my cur­rent, per­son­al reck­on­ing which influ­ence my every moment. My choice to ignore them does not negate them. So per­haps there is some worth in explor­ing how my val­ues, atti­tudes, and behav­ior might be medi­at­ed by expand­ing my con­scious­ness, my soul.