Spirit: “an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms,” according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Our spirit is a part of us that cannot be medically identified. Our mind can be measured, quantified. Even, God forbid, dissected — but the spirit is something else. It likes in the ethereal.
The Greek word pneuma (see definition 2) translates as “breath,” and it might be said that the modern definition of the word is similar to the definition of “breath” to an ancient person: “ an invisible liquid or vapor held to travel throughout the body and to be necessary to and associated with life.” (Meriam-Webster) It’s there, we experience it, and yet, we aren’t exactly aware what it is. When it’s gone, we’re gone, and yet it’s not our thoughts, which are centered in our brain.
Questions of spirit are questions for philosophy and also of epistomology — the study of what known, and ontology, the study of what is.
Under this heading I have placed posts on “Memoir” and “Older and Wiser.” I could have put “Memoir” under “Mind,” since all writing is intellectual work. But somehow I thought memoir was more a discipline of spirit than intellect. Memoir is, perhaps, more ontological than philosophical, with the memoirist desperately trying to sift heir memories and find out what really is or was.
Older and Wiser is my name for all the blog posts on topics, such as human ethical behavior, that seem to me to be wisdom based. Wisdom, after all, is the province of those of us in the third stage of life. We have seem much, and our voices offer much perspective.
Hope you enjoy reading the posts in this category.
In an earlier blog post, Loomings of a California Spiritual Journey, I listed four questions I planned to answer by taking a pilgrimage, to California where I grew up. These questions were general and could serve various individuals who want to reflect and refine life practice. Basically, they sketch out a “a how to change […]
The Question is: How to Change Your Life? Read More »
As I read over the posts that I wrote on the California trip, I made a list of the things I learned on each day and linked the posts below. Today, as I re-write and re-edit, I come again upon thoughts of Amelia Earhart. Her name came up more than once. Like her I was
Things I Learned on the California Trip Read More »
I spent most of the day driving, returning from Littlefield, Arizona to Fort Collins. I actually left before 6 a.m., and rolled up to my house at 5:45 p.m. But it wasn’t all bad, because as I drove I was thinking about the California pilgrimage, putting my life in order, so to speak. The 10
Last Day of the California Pilgrimage Read More »
I have arrived in LIttlefield, Arizona, just on the far side of the Nevada border. It was a long, tiring drive. The morning began beautifully, with “Barely” showing me how he feeds the blue jays from his porch. That was the highlight of the day. After that, Cholame, then Bakersfield, and then the Mojave desert
Leaving Can Be Hard: Departing from Morro Bay Read More »
Tomorrow, bright and early, I need to get back in the car and travel east. Toward Colorado. Which is not a bad place. Nor is work bad. Exactly. But you know. Today would be a day in San Luis Obispo. Doing my own kind of things. Walking the Labyrinth My day in San Luis Obispo
A Day in San Luis Obispo Read More »
Up till now my central coast trip has been in and around Morro Bay. Today, I decided to go up Highway 1 to see the part of that road that clung precariously to the side of a mountain. This would be that part of Highway 1, driving to Big Sur. This trip would not go
Driving to Big Sur from the South on Highway 1 Read More »
It’s funny when you are born somewhere, like California, that has such a big cultural significance. California dreaming was an idiom and a song when I was a kid. I took it for granted. I knew nothing else, since I was born here, but California dreaming was something my dad experienced as a young man,
I think Dad Misunderstood California Dreaming … Read More »
My father used to say that the indigenous Californians were less violent than the plains tribes. I didn’t think of that as a sign of a difference between the tribes themselves so much as the effect of the weather and geography of California. When you’re in California, particularly on the coast, with the sound of
In the Land of the Lotus Eaters Read More »
Around noon I began to wonder how crazy I was to plan the long drive I was taking. The second day of 500 plus miles. Mile after mile of standing on the pedal and holding the wheel. It was uncomfortable. I wasn’t bored, though, actually. I was enjoying the drive, the country unfolding before me.
The Long Drive Continues — Utah to the Sea Read More »
Is 700 miles too far to drive in one day? On the first day of my California spiritual journey, I drove 720 miles. I left Fort Collins at 7 a.m. and rolled into Denver to the tune of John Major playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold as Love” and I felt pretty good for the first three
Is 700 Miles Too Far to Drive in One Day? Read More »
