The Everyday Human

March: On Death March 9 Today's reflection was inspired by another quote from Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage. At my father's wake, as I knelt before his body, I was hit with a wave of questions: Was he there in the room watching this farce of a wake? Was he somewhere else facing judgment as we were taught would happen? Was he just gone?   No answers came in the form of a rando...

March: On Death March 8 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from J.D. Salinger's  Catcher in the Rye. Despite what our culture or society or others may have you believe, there is no allotted amount of socially acceptable time to mourn someone or something or whatever it is you might be mourning.  We all mourn in our own time. Don't rush your healing. So if you’ve lost someone...

March: On Death March 7 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Watch the ocean waves crash endlessly upon the shore. Restless, stubborn in their eternal struggle against land. Admirable in their tenacity? Perhaps. But should not all things rest? Even the stars must rest when they’ve expended their energy, and so must we. Your life is one never-ending...

March: On Death March 6 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hyperion: A Romance. There’s something about graveyards or old graves, places where those who have lived out their lives, however long or short, come to rest—for good. They are peaceful, as though nature and those who have gone before us are welcoming us to join and rest with them for a w...

March: On Death March 5 Today's reflection was inspired by another quote from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. In one season you can watch the flower of a tree become pollinated and bear fruit. The fruit will be picked by a hand or eaten by animals or remain on its branch until it withers and falls to the earth to be taken back into the soil. Do you hear it complain? Do you hear it wish for...

March: On Death March 4 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett . From the moment you are born . . . no, no, even before that. From the moment you are conceived, and perhaps contrary to what you’d like the truth to be, you are on your way to meeting Death. And we all have different ideas about how we'd like to go. Most of us are hoping to go quiet...

March: On Death March 3 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Kenzaburō Ōe's Hiroshima Notes. There is a biological urge to live on. But have you ever really thought about what that means? What do you want to live on when you're gone? Your genes? DNA? Or would it be better for your actions and ideas and kindness to be passed on and echo through the generations after you&ap...

March: On Death March 2 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.  Adventures great and small—like them or not—are a part of us. Life itself is one great adventure. And yet we are most afraid of the one we all have in common—death. Countless humans have gone before you, countless more will go after you, and we have no idea what awaits us on the other side. ...

March: On Death March 1 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from The Muppet Christmas Carol. You will meet countless people in your life. Anyone from your parents, partner, and children to the waiter in a restaurant, the stranger on the street, or even someone online.  But all of these meetings will eventually become partings. That is the way of it. If you find yourself saddened to kno...

February: On Life February 28 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "A Question" by Robert Frost. Count the scars on your body—if you have few to none, count yourself lucky. Now count the scars on your soul, if you have few to none, count yourself even luckier. But chances are, you are riddled with a mess of them, physical and of the soul and mind, great and small. You can&apo...

February: On Life February 27 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Mark Twain's book Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. As wonderful as science is (and it is!), there is something sad about it in that the more we know through science, the less magic there seems to be in the world.  The mystery of the stars becomes burning balls of gas, rainbows become light ref...

February: On Life February 26 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the 1982 film The Dark Crystal. You can’t be sure you’ll wake up in the morning, but you can be sure that if you do, things will change. Sometimes small—you’re just a day older, your hair’s a little grayer. Sometimes big—a child is born, a loved one dies.  Sometimes good—progress is made in the fight for equality an...

February: On Life February 25 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "Opportunity" by Berton Brayley. There's something about doubt and dismay. They'll creep in on you, making you think less of yourself and your abilities.  But if you are aware of what's happening in your mind--the what and the why of it--and if you keep pushing, you'll eventually break past...

February: On Life February 24 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from John Lewis' book Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change. Humans are a mess, no way around it. We do things that are against our own best interest on a daily basis. We do terrible, terrible things. When you look at individual instances of the horrors committed by humans—destruction on a mass sc...

February: On Life February 23 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. If I could wish anything for all humans on Earth, it would be that each one would have the opportunity to garden at some point in their life.  Learning to love the caterpillars in your garden is learning to love the caterpillars in your life. And in life, there will be...

February: On Life February 22 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from  The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.  You wear a different mask in every situation you are in. This is not a bad thing. It would be impossible to be the same person at work as you are with your partner, friends, or children. Nor would you want to be.  Though, you must be careful of letting these personas stray...

February: On Life February 21 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Strength to Love. If you are not under threat of a whirlwind of despair, count yourself currently lucky, because the winds can change at any moment, and to live and be human means you cannot escape the storm at certain points in your life.  You can face down whatever storm comes you...

February: On Life February 20 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  Fear is powerful, yes. But it is only as strong as you allow it to be. This thing you have feared for so long, this thing you built up in your mind to be some great and terrible beast that would devour you on sight, it turns out, is not so hideous as you had imagined.  It...

February: On Life February 19 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII. The planet is a sick little kid, and we are to blame.  But the future of a dead world does not have to come to pass.  Humans are capable of great destruction, yes, but we are also capable of great care and love—we are capable of fixing things that we have broken, because it is...

February: On Life February 18 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the graphic novel Superman: For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. It's easy to fall into the trap and be pessimistic about what we see going on in the world. It appears that those with power, status, and money are using all of those things for their own gain (and it's true, many of them are).  But fea...

February: On Life February 17 Today's reflection was inspired by Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi's poem "The Guest House." Will today be a good day? Or a bad day? What a notion! How will I feel today? Happy, sad, weird? I'm hoping for happy, because I should be happy, right? What a notion! Your body and mind are a guest house, and they're open to every emotion you can possibly feel...

February: On Life February 16 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from E. E. Cummings' poem "Suppose." Life wouldn't be what it is without Death: fleeting, fragile, precious.  And part of Life is slowly building a relationship with Death. We see it all around us in many shapes and forms. Sometimes brutally obvious in wars, sometimes as subtle as a a flower losing it...

February: On Life February 15 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It's inevitable that we will stray from the path of life. It happens to us all, and it happens to us all many times, you can be sure. You may believe that you're being led astray by external forces, but really, can these things, people, or circumstance...

February: On Life February 14 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore. Looking at others and at the world with our limited perspectives, it's so easy to forget that we are all connected--to each other and to the world and universe. But if you step outside of yourself for a moment, read different books, travel to different places, and...

February: On Life February 13 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Derek Walcott's Nobel lecture, "The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory." We take so much for granted--family, friends, jobs, culture, even our lives. But it can all be broken in an instant.  And when this happens, we are left with a choice: leave it where it lands to rot and return to the dirt, or pic...