When I was a twenty-year-old aspiring musician, I met a man in his retirement named Jon who would become my musical mentor, and even more importantly, my friend. — He lived in Paris and I lived in North Carolina (then Ohio, then Texas, then Germany, then Texas, then Louisiana, then Texas, then…Norway!!). So, by necessity, we became email penpals. Jon was and is an exceptional teacher. I never apprenticed with him formally, but I visited him several times in…

In honor of the way my best friend lives his life; I recently visited him in India and the following words naturally flowed out of my pen and onto the page. — Take a moment to engage your mind’s eye. You know, your ability to generate inner mental pictures, as though there is a movie reel projecting onto the theater screen of your mind. Now, imagine you arrive at the lobby of a hotel, not knowing why you are there or how…

An excerpt from Khalil Gibran’s enduring and influential “The Prophet.” — A friend of mine who is a mother recently shared this poem with me, stating that it really sums up her vision of what she wants for her son: And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children…

Our time here is short. Let’s make the most of it! — Year after year we live our lives. As Gretchen Rubin says, “the days are long, but the years are short…” In childhood, time seems to slink by, feeling almost as if it’s going in reverse.

A secret to living life with an open heart and an open mind. It is hard to stay living in the mystery because it’s hard to live in uncertainty and have negative capability. After all, in life, there are often multiple valid interpretations of the same events, difficult decisions often…

Carl Jung said it best when he stated that each person is like a vintage wine that is stamped with the year, place, and season in which they are born. Just as my parents instilled certain values in me, so did being a 1988 vintage from a North Carolina summer…

A note of gratitude to the person I share my daily life with — Years back, I met a guy that was almost instantly mesmerizing in his humility, curiosity, gentleness, and genuineness. Over the course of time, we slowly became the best of friends and have made many memories together. Some of the memories have been really fun! Like taking a road trip through…

“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom!” ―Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” Like many people in the United States, I grew up with an immense sense of patriotism in my hometown. Fourth of July was a huge event with picnics, a symphony orchestra with cannonfire in…

A tiny flicker can illuminate a vast darkness. When I was a kid in Sunday School, they taught us a simple song: “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” Although I was a young boy, I took the words at face value. I certainly hid my light…