Loose Leaf Notes

1. Gavel or grovel?

2. I was sure I was going to see another on camera slap when Kevin McCarthy walked up to Matt Gaetz HERE.

3. “When the North Star of your own faith is becoming obscured, when you feel as if you’re in stormy seas and low visibility, who are the lighthouses? John Lennon was ours.” U2’s Bono on John

4. “Leonard Cohen said his teacher once told him that the older you get, the lonelier you become, and the deeper the love you need. This is because, as we go through life, we tend to over-identify with being the hero of our stories. This hero isn’t exactly having fun: he’s getting kicked around, humiliated, and disgraced. But if we can let go of identifying with him, we can find our rightful place in the universe, and a love more satisfying than any we’ve ever known. People constantly throw around the term “hero’s journey” without having any idea what it really means. Everyone from CEOs to wellness influencers thinks the hero’s journey means facing your fears, slaying a dragon, and gaining 25k followers on Instagram. But that’s not the real hero’s journey…

5. “…In the real hero’s journey, the dragon slays YOU. Much to your surprise, you couldn’t make that marriage work. Much to your surprise, you turned forty with no kids, no house, and no prospects. Much to your surprise, the world didn’t want the gifts you proudly offered it. If you are foolish, this is where you will abort the journey and start another, and another, abusing your heart over and over for the brief illusion of winning. But if you are wise, you will let yourself be shattered, and return to the village, humbled, but with a newfound sense that you don’t have to identify with the part of you that needs to win, needs to be recognized, needs to know. This is where your transcendent life begins.” – Paul Weinfield

6. I’ve been looking for a word to describe the stage of life I am now inhabiting, the time after childhood, romance, finding vocation, raising kids and experiencing the joy of little grandkids. Some people call the slowing down of elder years, the golden years, but I think “the transcendent years” is a better description, as in the beginning of living beyond the range of normal or merely human experience, a delving into and readying for experiences that takes you out of yourself and into something larger and beyond comprehension. It’s a long stage, as was the other stages, one that takes time.

7. From the Merriam Webster dictionary:  Did you know? The Latin verb scandere means “to climb”, so transcend has the basic meaning of climbing so high that you cross some boundary. A transcendent experience is one that takes you out of yourself and convinces you of a larger life or existence; in this sense, it means something close to “spiritual,” or as I like to say, Become the air for others to breathe, a memory that floats like a fragrance.

8. I once got through being stuck on the road in a snowstorm for hours by imagining that I had died. I was separated from my family but knew they would get by and could live their lives without me. I was busy navigating this new situation and doing what I needed to do to acclimate, just like if I was dead, I imagined.

9. My skin thins translucent / like frosted glass on a night sky view / where a veil is lifting / on an obscured constellation / that tracks the arc of life / It landmarks the ages / as my form rearranges / diffusing before it passes / before the soul eclipses / the body’s last remains… Read Eclipse in its entirety HERE.

10. HERE’S a review of my poetry collection Poems From the Dark Room and here’s my blogger poet friend Ron with the collection. It was captioned “Just got the mail. Fine reading ahead, I’m SURE.  Thanks, CR!”

11. I just bought a new voice recorder but there were no instructions on use except for a sentence saying that the instructions were on the device internally, but how can I find the instructions without instructions for how to find them.

“…all you can manage, lying / in the still-dark darkness / is to tell yourself that you’re / not really there, your eyes / aren’t really open yet, you’re / happy living in the dark…” Read Ron’s poem Annual Postponement in its entirety HERE. 

13. Life is stranger than fiction. The proof is HERE.

__________Thirteen Thursday