Monday Morning Mojo

On Saturday I dug up my entire garden. This meant pulling out the marigold bushes that were in full bloom. Undeterred by their resplendent beauty, I was dead set on using the one dry day I had in front of me to clear the plot. Out of the house came my 17-year-old daughter, Ruchi, to […]

When I was about eight years old I started attending synagogue on my own. At the time my mother was a Christian but not attending a church and my father was a non-practicing Jew. I must have felt the desire to be part of a religious community. I rode my bike to Sunday school, where

Last week I went on another wilderness retreat with my dog, Sita. For three days and three nights, we were off the grid in George Washington National Forest in Virginia. On the last night, I awoke at 4 am and decided to get up and enjoy the night. It was a waning gibbous moon, quite

Up at the park, I recently saw a group of young women sitting on the grass talking, all of them at least 10′ from each other in a large circle. Saturday I was heading out of my neighborhood to do some chores and I came across a concert happening at a local intersection. There were

Although I am not a Buddhist, I seek wisdom wherever I can find it and Buddhism has many frameworks that I find really helpful. One of them is the “Four Brahmaviharas.” Pronounced bra-ma vih-har-ahs. These are four states of mind that can help us with our lives: lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. I came

Last week I shared how my wife, musician Laura Baron, helped Graham Nash play his hit, Our House, on the guitar. Well, now it’s my turn. Though my story is a bit embarrassing. 30 years ago I participated in the Men’s Multicultural Gathering. 50 black men, 50 white men, and a handful of other ethnicities

In 1969 Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell were out and about after breakfast, and as Nash tells the story, “We’re going to get into Joan’s car, and we pass an antique store. And we’re looking in the window, and she saw a very beautiful vase that she wanted to buy … I persuaded her to

Last week Sita and I headed into the High Peaks Wilderness in the Adirondacks for four nights. We camped in the backcountry on the side of a mountain and about 100 feet from the North Fork of the Boquet River, which provided a continuous rushing and gurgling as the mountain runoff made its way over

I will never forget that hike! I loved being a boy scout when I was young. I didn’t know it when this picture was taken but the next three days were going to wear me out! Off I went to carry that pack along the trail with about 30 other scouts, 4 troop masters, and

I was in my early 20s, out late one October evening in rural Indiana with my dog, Chokma, an 80# shepherd mix, and a close friend, Dale. Dale was working as a journalist on a Hoosier newspaper and decided to run a story on a local legend, the Headless Switchman, around Halloween. At the time