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Something Heavenly downhere

downhere is the band I wish I had found sooner. I did not discover this band until their 2008 album, Ending is Beginning. The album is brilliant and contains songs like “My Last Amen,” “Something Heavenly,” “Coming Back Home,” “The Problem,” “The Beggar Who Gives Alms,” and “How Many Kings.” “How Many Kings,” reprised on…

The Great Beyond

Those who read this blog regularly may want to check out my latest project, a book entitled The Great Beyond. While it is a novel, it wrestles with significant issues related to how we see life, death, and the spiritual world. Here is the summary from the back of the book. Ray did not expect his life…

Nature Dance

I watched a nature dance today. As I drove past Nose Hill Park in Calgary, I noticed three deer sticking close together in a herd. Then I noticed two coyotes on this side of the deer, two more to the west of the trio, and one more behind the deer. I realized I was watching…

Where to Now St. Peter?

“Where to Now St. Peter?” is a song that I have been listening to for about 4 decades. There is much I like about the song and its meaning continues to intrigue me. It is a song about death and what comes after death, written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. Taupin provided the evocative…

Of Mulligans and the Love of Wisdom

For most of us, as we continue to think about who we are and the road that we have traveled, we find that there are both regrets and celebrations; there is obedience and inconsistency along the road. We find that we only partially live the philosophies by which we say we have chosen to live.…

Live This Life (Follow-up to Terminal)

A few days ago my thoughts were focused on the fact that we are all “terminal.” Today my mind turns to the things within us that drive us to keep on living. We have likely all known someone who planned to “live a hard life, have a good time, and die young” only to be…

Terminal

“Death is to be warded off by exercise, by healthy habits, by medical advances. What cannot be halted can be delayed, and what cannot forever be delayed can be denied. But all our progress and all our protest notwithstanding, the mortality rate holds steady at 100 percent.”[1] In a culture that speaks little about death,…

The Problem With Quotes

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time will know that I rely heavily upon the writings and sayings of others. I frequently use the words that another has said or written as a jumping off point for exploring my own thoughts. Most of the time, I am confident that this is…

Oblivion

Recently, I watched the science-fiction movie Oblivion (2013; starring Tom Cruise and directed by Joseph Kosinski). It is an entertaining movie with a good mix of action, philosophy, and romance. If anything, the writers and director may have been a little too ambitious, for one can readily see threads from several other movies embedded in…

Soul Building

Difficulty, pain, and suffering are things that all of us would like to avoid. We would prefer that God would simply make our lives beautiful and perfect. We would like to have God give us a perfect job, a large salary, abundant health, the ideal spouse, and wonderful kids. Some preachers would have us believe…