Formerly Feral Podcast

Sir Ken Robinson is a British writer; he would go into nursery schools and ask the children, “Who in here is an artist?”. At the age of four or so, every hand goes up. He’d go to rooms of 3rd or 4th graders and ask, “Who in here is an artist,” nearly no hands went up. Why? Robinson thinks that kids were told, either overtly or in more subtle ways, that they simply weren’t good at art. As I think a...

Ross is on the delights again (eye roll). A few years ago, poet Ross Gay did a break-out book called Book of Delights . Feral Souls will remember me going on about it here. It was nifty. The premise was an essay a day for a year on a delight he noticed. It was simple and refreshing, and for the era it reached the bestseller lists (into and during Covid), it was even necessary. But recently, Amazon...

Next time you’re in Walmart’s parking lot (for me, likely later today), look out over the vehicles parked there. There are about three colors: gray, black, and white. Don’t focus on the few exceptions (red or maroon make an appearance); see that most cars today are a slightly different shade of those three colors. Here’s a graph to prove over the last 50 years, green has been all but squeezed from...

This is an end-of-summer clearance sale. When we’re coming out of seasons into new ones, it’s good to survey what we’ve learned, gained, or lost as we move on. So this will be part collection, part list, and all annoying for someone who might be here for a concise, single-topic entry into our journey on the subject of self-worth. A daily practice for “never enoughers” First haikus. There will be n...

It’s no surprise that this particular Substack is about changing your experience with life. And maybe Nordic novelty will be the thing that leads you to a different experience with life. I’m hoping so with this post.  A few years ago, Linda Akeson McGurk wrote a trendy book about rearing children with a more integrated experience with the natural world. The book is called There's No Such Thing as...

The ‘ ew, people ’ attitude has had its day hasn’t it? The internet’s meme factories endlessly churn out snark that seems to say real, deeply enjoyable life happens under a comforter in front of Netflix while your Doordash delivered food is sat at your door without speaking to another person. Even for an introvert like myself, it doesn’t exactly sound like enriching bliss for a warm-blooded mammal...

What’s one simple pleasure that you never get tired of? I lofted this question to friends at dinner a few days ago. The yearbook answers come first: Spending time with my family. My kids laughing. Great replies, no question, but our conversation opened the door to a more interesting truth as dinner wore on. Someone commented on the heated floor in the bathroom of the home we were in. Then, a perso...

I met a man named Paul who owns an impossibly adorable little British car called a Riley Elf. His was built in 1964, and he had it shipped from England to his home near Pittsburgh a few years ago. Seeing one of the less than ten Rileys in the US was a special moment for me, and it was fun to imagine whizzing down a backroad or zipping around in a city in his tiny gem of a car. As I talked with Pau...

Our youngest son (24), Isaac, and I went to a park near his home for a photography walk. He’s an analog guy, getting great evocative pictures with loads of nuance and feeling. I only want birds with my digital. As we exited his car, I heard a cacophony of bluejays behind a wall of large trees separating us from a slow-moving, wide creek. Four or five jays were doing loud calls and in a complete di...

Our feet have over 7,000 nerve endings in each foot. They are highly sensitive radars informing our minds of endless experiences every second. I sometimes take my daily walk in minimal sandals , and over my routine mile-and-a-half trek, I may have one modest jolt of an unpleasant feeling, a rock, or a gnarled root that catches my foot a bit, but the fuller experience of the ground beneath me is li...

If you want a laugh or two, google “skip challenge.” The search will show adults trying to remember how to skip. Grown humans are lunging forward like some defective robot that’s misfiring. It’s hilarious, and they’re laughing, making their attempts harder. Some look so bizarre that I wonder if the person ever knew how to skip. To be fair, skipping is pretty useless. What’s more, it’s hard to skip...

God is love; his people are called to share that love and be known for it. When they don’t, as leaders, our move may be to guilt, shame, or challenge them, but what if the issue runs deeper than what those actions lead to? Shame is demotivating, so it’s hardly the right tool to lead people into the enormous challenge of loving an unloving world. Imagine trying to climb Everest in Crocs. It’s that....

We like a fell swoop. Something done in one fell swoop. It means doing something with a single, quick action or effort. It’s tidy, and to our overburdened, overscheduled minds, it’s insanely attractive. Who doesn’t love a home run? A slam dunk? That thing where one action completes everything. In my lifetime, ordering a combo meal with a burger, fries, and drink changed the experience of going thr...

As we near the first full year of Feral Soul (next week’s post will be our shared birthday!), we pause for some help to meet ourselves in change. The change of living our worth isn’t easy — so bring some ease to it. (psst, it’s unlikely anyone else will) Who knows how social media algorithms get us in slots for particular goods or services? But a clothing maker named Western Aloha landed in my cor...

Our worth rests in us, not the present version of us. Get this wrong, and we can stall or, even worse, live far beneath our potential. We get attached to who we are right now. Emotional attachment to who we are now isn’t something to negatively judge ourselves or others for; it’s something that has guarded us against rash, dishonorable, or inauthentic change. It has partly protected us against cha...

We are led to find our purpose in what we do. Meet someone, and the exchange of this detail will most likely happen within a minute. Even if the word ‘retired’ is wedged in the description, the room feels arranged once everyone has said what they do or what they did. A palpable calmness and rhythm of conversation flows once everyone knows their place in the pecking order. Because sharing our occup...

Hey, there fellow peacocks! Today’s extra info is content, but sending it is a message too. You can be extra . If that’s all you get from this, cool. Other details follow, but you are unfolding, and as you spill over the boundaries you or others have set for you, own the new space! (see peacock above) Many of our upbringings didn’t allow for difference. We were enmeshed with family scripts, and br...

a barred owl peeking to see me in the woods behind our house this past fall. 2022 Catching ourselves in the slow-moving habits of winter can bring more than a few incriminating voices to our minds. “I should’ve done more,” “I wanted to get that done,” and “my closet would horrify Marie Kondo .” Winter is like walking in sludge; the evidence we’ve been doing it isn’t mud but clutter. Some people ar...

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