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Walking, Races, and Postcards

    It is Seafair milk carton boat racing Saturday at Greenlake in Seattle Washington as friend Matt and I dodge pirates, children, and temporary floating devices to make our way back to our cars. To the right is a lake filled with children racing with announcer Chip Hanauer, Seattle hydroplane 11 time gold cup winner, narrating the action. To our left is a row of booths. One booth stands out and Matt and I make our way toward it. We meet entrepreneur Robb Anthony who as a freshmen dreamed of receiving a mail box full of postcards. Thirty would be enough to take away his painful loneliness, he shared with us. Yearning for the thirty and knowing they weren’t coming he decided to give them instead of receive them. Armed with postcards, he began writing to other freshmen. Overwhelmed by volume, he enrolled other students in his vision to remind people of their value. This concept birthed the non-profit Postcards from Farr Away (PFFA). Approaching his table we see a pile...

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You Can’t Go Home — You Are Always Going Home

Spiritual living is filled with paradoxes. The spiritual practice of tithing teaches me it is by giving I receive. Through quiet meditation I learn to hear. By loving my enemies I know what love really is. I know peace through accepting what is while taking action toward something else. The paradoxes of spiritual living are many. In high school I was captivated by the book title You Can’t Go Home Again, by Thomas Wolfe.  Although I tried reading the book, in my teens, several times without success, the book title haunted me.  It is not possible to return home.  This, too, I believe is a great paradox.  As I can never return home, I am simultaneously always going home, making home, or home. This past month I spent ten days at writing camp in Port Townsend, WA where my family had a vacation cabin while I was in my twenties and thirties. I concluded my stay in Seattle, WA where I have lived most of my life. I  was...

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