OWLcourage
a blog invested in hope and creative possibility

Like many of my fellow citizens, I have been searching about to find purchase as I study my responses to the outcomes of the national...

May Sarton once explained that when she wanted to know what she thought she wrote prose and when she wanted to know what she felt, she...

I am a participant in a global enterprise embraced by an array of humans who believe that the exploration of human consciousness is the...

Like many in the US, I am invested in, focused on, and sometimes fretful about the imminent presidential election. This blog, focused on...

Time for another poem.... uncertainty   hanging in the hall corner on a spider web…   knowing i now know uncertainty with quiet...

At its inception, the OWL in the name of this blog, OWLcourage referred not only to “owls”, the iconic image of wisdom which presented my...

At 6:30 AM on June 17, 2024, I tested positive for Covid 19 for the fourth time. Eight hours later, I went to my CVS and paid $1,651.99...

The year my oldest daughter was ready to start kindergarten, we moved to a new city and rented an apartment while searching for a home to...

The word “integrity” has two somewhat complementary but distinct meanings.  One focuses on “the quality of being honest and having strong...

Productivity is defined as the state or quality of producing something. This simple, seemingly harmless definition is amplified with...

My educational preparation as a professional registered nurse was in a collegiate baccalaureate program, an emergent leap forward in the...

Spring comes early in Goleta, with harbingers announced in February, a shock to my midwestern system of weather management. Suddenly I...

(This poem showed up early this morning, unexpected and uninvited, and volunteered to be my next blog post.  I was startled, skeptical,...

The concept of “belief systems” has a wide variety of meanings, so my first intention here is to share what meaning that concept has for...

If you immediately added the last names, you may, like me, have taken note of these two amazing women who have captured the imagination...

Like many humans, I have spent a portion of my life grappling with the lurking uncertainty about the meaning of my existence, always...

Few national values are as readily observable as the one that incessantly declares that we Americans seek “Improvement”.  Indeed, we...

Virtually every wisdom system I have studied, and of course my pattern is insistent and persistent, eventually advises me to learn to...

Over time, I have learned to think of this time of the year in the US as the season of “Great Expectations”, explanatory without being...

I have been the recipient of thousands of acts of kindness during my life. I think most people could say the same thing if they reflected...

On January 25, 2024 I will provide a one-day workshop on Creative Conflict Engagement to a group of nurses as part of their fellowship...

Yesterday I attended the Chumash Intertribal Powwow in St. Inez, my first powwow in California. I have attended powwows in Wisconsin,...

Shortly after my 80th birthday last February, I started “field testing” the statement “I’m 80”. I did so out of a curiosity catalyzed by...

A gooseberry is defined as “a round edible yellowish-green or reddish berry with a thin translucent hairy skin.” Just reading this...

“Child-resistant packaging or CR packaging is special packaging used to reduce the risk of children ingesting hazardous materials. This...

The waves were large and loud today as I approached the beach where I walk most mornings. To actually get to the shoreline, I leave a...

The indicator of a good family reunion is the satisfaction and positive feelings the participants experience as they head back to their...

In a few hours I will board a plane to fly due East to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There I will join a gathering of my living siblings and...

I continue to chronicle the curious, even fascinating lessons learned in my move from Ohio to the Pacific Ocean. As I have noted before,...

It’s hard to find a group experience where some human in the situation doesn’t declare that they have the right answer, a field of...