she feels the cold

small-weighted stone

and throws it in the lake

a little thing 

she can control -

so different from the hate

she shuts her eyes

to listen hard,

soft-clicking wind through leaves,

sits on hot grass

and…

Every one of the thousands of huge vermillion torii (gates) found at the Fushimi Inari Taisha (Shrine) was a gift honoring Inari, the Shinto god of rice.  Each of these massive structures represents donations valued from $40,000 to $1,000,000 from…

Ahhh...3:30p Tokyo time...1:30 am in the States...just out on the crisp (50 degree F) clean streets and made it to a coffee shop.  Sitting in the smoking section of Doutou with a cappuccino and cream roll, and my latest vape…

Gratitude for this place...and the Earth we all share 

If you have read any of my musings, you know I am a geek.  Unabashedly.  One part of my geeked - ness is my LOVE of words, their origin (etymology) and our common use, or connotation.

The etymology of the…

What happens when we let go of the eyes we have relied upon for a lifetime, and try to see with our heart?

In Mark Nepo's "The Book of Awakening:  Having the Life You Want by Being Present…

Years ago, laying in bed in the upstairs family room of my "fairytale castle", I first heard the voice in my head.  For those of you in medicine, this is not usually something welcome.  For others accustomed to prayer or…

Maybe the reason I stayed in a life that didn't fit for so long was because even with the chaos, it made sense.  There was a tidiness in the labels - I was a doctor, a scientist, a rational person…

Last year, I left behind a meaningful, secure, profitable life with a decades-long career in medicine for a trip in the woods.  I had flirted with music as a sideline for most of the last ten years, then decided to…