The Everyday Human

May: On Love May 9 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Oscar Wilde's play  An Ideal Husband. It’s so important to love yourself.  As the cliche goes, you can’t love someone else before you love yourself—and it’s true. It starts with the society within you—your soul. And it’s a lifelong romance . . . the most complex and fragile relationship you might ever have. It’s something...

May: On Love May 8 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Carl Sagan's novel  Contact. Love—is it a mystical force of the cosmos?  I deny that it is and claim rather that it is a deeply human one grounded in action and presence and in choice. One that transmutes our insignificance in the expanse into greatness. It is the only answer to the question and it is the only thing that...

May: On Love May 7 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the 1998 masterpiece of a video game  Xenogears . We can imagine that God had a choice when creating humans: create us perfectly, or make us flawed. And God chose, very obviously, to make us flawed. If we were perfect, then we would not help each other—perhaps even, we would not love each other.  Would we even have a need for...

May: On Love May 6 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the book  The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak.  The fact that someone loves you so much that your mere presence is all they need to feel whole, protected, and loved in return is a remarkable and beautiful thing.  It’s not always possible, of course. Other obligations call, you need your own time to be yourself, but know that when...

May: On Love May 5 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "Music, When Soft Voices Die (To–)" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It can be beautiful to hear a song you only listened to with your mother long after she is gone. It can be painful to smell the perfume or deodorant of your partner after they’ve left to live their life with another. It can be surreal to touch the wooden handle...

May: On Love May 4 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "Hyla Brook" by Robert Frost. There is a type of love out there. A love that love does not and will not tolerate ideals of perfection or expectations of permanence. No, instead it exists and thrives in the fleeting moments and in our flaws. This love’s roots grow deeper as the bearers age and are wind-stricken and suffer...

May: On Love May 3 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "Love Walked Alone" by Stephen Crane. One cannot be stronger than the other. The stronger love grows, the stronger heart’s pain grows right alongside her—waiting, always waiting. The reason is simple as to why it’s so difficult for some to love—it is because the risk for suffering is so great.  But the ultimate question...

May: On Love May 2 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince . There is so much— too much— emphasis on the wrong stuff. On what it means to live a good life. On what it means to be successful. Too many people have suffered from the belief—instilled in them from a young age by parents, peers, television, or now social media—that money and...

May: On Love May 1 April, the month On Nature, is over, and May, the month On Love, is upon us. Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Paulo Coelho's novel The Alchemist. Loving someone or something—to truly love them unconditionally and selflessly demands that you change and improve. Always . Your mind, body, and soul. It is to give away parts of yourself to them in the hopes t...

April: On Nature April 30 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "The Gardener 85" by Rabindranath Tagore. Buy a bag of bulbs and plant them in the ground and think of all the other dirt-covered, cracked hands that dug through the same dirt you’re kneeling in now. Smell the honeysuckles and lilacs in April, think of all the others who stuck their noses into the flowers of the a...

April: On Nature April 29 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from my novel  Dead World: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale. According to National Geographic, about 571 species of plants have gone extinct in the wild since the 1750s. And since 1900, an average of eight plant species have gone extinct every three years. I don’t know what the world will look like 10 years from now, let alone hundre...

April: On Nature April 28 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry. We fear a future that does not exist, one that we created and then let control our lives in the present. This is a very human thing to do—anxiety has helped us survive for millions of years out in the plains or in the forests and mountains. And it’s easy to say, “Do not...

April: On Nature April 27 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the graphic novel  A. Guardian  by me (Eastin DeVerna). You can try and retrace the steps you took, the paths you chose in your life that led you up to this moment here and now. You can ponder over the what ifs and what could have beens till the cows come home. And while reflection is good, dwelling can sink you into a...

April: On Nature April 26 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the video game  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. At what point does your life begin? At your birth? Or the moment your parents met? The moment an ancestor of yours who you’ll never know—one who will never know you—escaped death, fleeing a bear, wearing a helmet in a war, or stopping to pick up their scarf before cr...

April: On Nature April 25 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin’s  The Tombs of Atuan. We speak often of nature’s serenity and tranquility—it’s ability to heal and comfort. But its darker side—its duality—should be no surprise, for we humans have inherited both edges of this sword. The capacity for love and kindness, and for hostility and indifference. The ability...

April: On Nature April 24 Today's reflection was inspired by the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale. She wakes from the long sleep. One in which she dreamt of blossoms and wind and rivers and soil. The day’s first light falls upon her as she rises from her bed of moss and leaves and she steps forward into the world with nothing to separate her from the air or ground...

April: On Nature April 23 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The mysterious beauty of winter is undeniable, and so too is the fact that it has hardened humans, building resilience and forcing innovation out of necessity.  The cyclical nature of the seasons offers a reminder that the difficult and sparse times will end, but al...

April: On Nature April 22 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Monty Don's book  My Roots: A Decade in the Garden. When you are planting, you are facilitating life. When you are planting, you can forget your contracts to society for a moment or a few hours or a day. In this time, it is you and nature, you and the planet—you have no mortgage or rent or job, you do not have to e...

April: On Nature April 21 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Robert Frost's poem "Birches." In modern times, it is the constant stream of news—of knowing every horrible event happening around the globe the moment it happens, coupled with the daily burdens of being overworked and underpaid, the stress of being responsible for the survival of others, all while battli...

April: On Nature April 20 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from a book near and dear to me because . . . it was written by me: Lux: From the Kingdom of Darkness .  At this time of year, the Viola Sororia, also known as the common blue violet, stand humbly in the shade of the trees on either edge of the creek. They sit quietly on the side of the house and shed displaying their blue-p...

April: On Nature April 19 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from another Yogi teabag.  Despite the damage to humans and everything we’ve built, hurricanes stir and thrash the ocean waters, mixing and redistributing nutrients like a blender, further supporting life that may not have had access to them before. They balance the planet’s temperatures by moving excess heat from the equato...

April: On Nature April 18 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Richard Fortey's book  The Earth: An Intimate History. Our lives are less than the blink of an eye—cosmically speaking. Humanity, too. Here one day, gone the next.  So, what do we do with that? We remind ourselves that everything happening around us—the things in our control and the things we have no agency over—is...

April: On Nature April 17 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from the song "Where Do the Children Play?" by Yusef / Cat Stevens. While there’s something so innately human about a child's ability to play anywhere , they shouldn’t have to play just anywhere.  Even the playgrounds, and while I am grateful that designated areas for children exist, are often lacking imaginat...

April: On Nature April 16 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from N. Scott Momaday's book  Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land. As bleak as the outlook may be when you look around at the damage we've done to the planet, and at times when despair settles in as you watch the local woodlands get cut down and bulldozed in just a few weeks time, destroying or displacin...

April: On Nature April 15 Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Kéramos." Is it any surprise some of the greatest paintings and works of art are interpretations of nature?  We see beauty in the natural world and are compelled by something mysterious within ourselves to replicate it.  We hear the sound of water by a creek or the sea a...