Author: Rick Bellingham

I recently visited the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo whose vision is a world where everyone feels a sacred sense of connection to themselves, each other, and the planet. Their mission is to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.Key values include the sacredness of all people and the planet, the integration of spirituality and science, and the transformative power of love.  Before lunch with Dr. Xiaoan Li, the Senior Program Director, I had Read More

I recently had the privilege of participating in a water ceremony co-sponsored by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Regional Land Conservancy, and the National Writers Workshop.  We hiked through lovely meadows (a land reclaimed and rehabilitated from its poisonous history as a golf course) and made our way to a bridge over a creek that feeds the Great Lakes.  The site is now an environmental asset in an essential watershed Read More

 “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”  James Baldwin I live in a small rural town in Northern Michigan. At a recent Harbor Days parade, the town celebrated the pillars of the community:  the fire department, police department, athletic teams, local queens, the library,   We even had a Mutt Strut so that everyone could display their beloved dogs.  It was a lovely gathering of positive Read More

“However vast the darkness, we must apply our own light.”  Stanley Kubrick “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Albert Camus   When I was a soldier in Vietnam, I started reading Kierkegaard. Gosh, what a surprise! Søren Kierkegaard, a key figure in existentialist philosophy, explored themes of individual existence, faith, and the human condition. Several quotes encapsulate Read More

“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”  Denis Diderot “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world,” Susan Sontag  Instructions for living a life: Mary OliverPay attention.Be astonished.Tell about it.    What is truth and how do we talk about it?  The answer to this question has become increasingly difficult to discern with the proliferation of disinformation Read More

Last week, I was walking on a gorgeous trail in Olympic National Park with my grandson when he asked me, “What are the key philosophies and principles that guide your life?” (My grandson knows how to ask terrific questions—and he knows the kind of questions that delight me). After a long “hmmm,” I responded, “The Buddhist philosophy of the willingness to open to opening to openness, and a quote from T.S. Eliot: ‘At the still Read More

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”  Elon Musk   It seems to me we are experiencing a dearth of care and an abundance of carelessness.  In this post I’m going to posit what we might want to care more about and what we might be better off not caring about at all. I recently read three books that bring that idea into sharp focus.  The stories in these books dispel the Read More

“Giving is the highest expression of potency.”  Erich Fromm   This morning I woke up to the news that US stealth bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker busters on Iran’s nuclear facilities. To me, this action sets up the ultimate test of military potency. Were the bombs “successful” in eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities? We don’t know. Do Iran and its proxies still possess enough potency to attack American interests in the region? We don’t know. Will North Read More

Full Disclosure:  This post is primarily AI generated.  My contributions were to 1) ask the right question (how should parenting styles shift from raising to relating over the seven stages of Erickson’s model of psychosocial development?) 2) lightly edit the content and add a few of my constructs, and 3) verify the sourcing for the content.  I chose not to add any personal stories to this content until the end, so it lacks a lot Read More

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.  Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk “Empathy is a necessary step for truth and reconciliation.”  Simon Baron-Cohen, British clinical psychologist “Reconciliation is a part of the healing process, but how can there be healing when the wounds are still being inflicted.”  N.K. Jimisin, American science fiction writer   In my morning meditation, I do an exercise in which Read More

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” ― Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory   In March, 1967, I was a Greek God.  Yup, the Intra-fraternity Council had selected me as the frat-boy extraordinaire.  I was seen as the clean-cut, All-American, buttoned-up, locked-down, and closed-off model for fraternity life on campus.  In September of that same year I became a Read More

A gentle breeze, a whispered plea,“Grow, grow, grow,” you say to me.A tiny seed, in fertile ground,A future bright, all around.  With sun and rain, a patient hand,I heed your call, across the land.From humble root to reaching high,I touch the sky, as seasons fly. So whisper on, that soft command,To grow, grow, grow, hand in hand.For in this growth, a beauty lies,Reflected in my open eyes “Every Blade of Grass Has Its Angel that Read More