Breathing Out Stars

Some people are good at tennis.  I am not. I do have a special, innate skill in fire-building.  

Back when I had a radio show called The Medicine Mix, I invited a rabbi, a pastor and a surgeon onto the show…so we could discuss prayer and healing.  After the show was over, we were still talking about it in the elevator down to our cars.

Sure I knew what to expect. I'd been there before.  The lesson for me: fate will surprise you.

it is said that prayer is the highest form of rebellion -- you are daring to ask for a different world.

A podcast is an art form – filled with heart and dreams and intellect and color and sound editing. And reality.   Things are pretty real right now.   It's not a time I feel like being funny.   This is a time to feel things.

It's not enough to just get COVID.  Let's add fifty more limitations on top of that — or just feel like you have.   It's just Whack-A-Mole.

We may or may not have multiple cases of COVID in the house -- you decide for yourself how we are doing.

With five percent visibility on the lake, they were trapped in a sudden storm.   Honestly it had come out of nowhere.    But the skipper….she prayed…

...."Faith is not even real, you might say"...but I am here to offer that Faith is like your abs or your quads or your biceps.  For it to work, you have to exercise it...

We are back in the ark and send out doves to check on the world.   The dove brings back myrtle & olive -- to remind us to see with our hearts -- and that magic can come from nothing.

When the Tin Man faints -- for real -- and he dares to feel.

There is a special kind of grace that we all need right now.  A beautiful magic under stars and snow — when someone climbs out of their foxhole with their arms up in the air — singing.

After a hiatus we are back!  Something to do with a pandemic pup -- and a new direction.  With a nod to Forrest Gump -- the only way forward is forward! 

I need an emergency lantern to see my way through dark times -- and batteries to help me conserve my energy for these times -- which aren't as light as I wish they could be.  

A modern Hanukkah story for listening -- when the world was different -- and there was light -- so much light.   

As we have moved into the days of darkness and I am dreaming a childhood dream – of flying.  And I have made Sangria.  It's not really the day-drinking -- it's the dream of day-drinking.  Second star to the left and straight on 'til morning... 

These days I am just in pieces.  That's it.  But even pieces have to find a way to fit together.

We all have our individual traumas that have prepared us for what is ahead.  But you know, they have prepared us well.  The only way forward...is forward.

That time that we think we need a superhero to fix everything -- but the superhero you are waiting for is you...

This week I built a structure with bolts and washers and nuts – and shiny metal.  I removed the protect plastic – from the pieces – and from myself.     I built a structure to contain the fire.    I am the structure to contain the fire.

Heck, burn the frick out of marshmallows.But hold onto the light.

What inspired me this week....between the land of the living and the land of the dead -- the bridge that joins us is love.

Looking for sweetness when it's rare -- and following the sound of a voice that calls to you.

When life goes zoom zoom zoom and all you want to do is not be the strong one anymore -- oh, and choosing joy!

Even if you can't see -- you can still re-view, re-vision and change.  And of course -- sardines.

When we lose someone, we can embody the qualities of theirs which we admire so much.  They become part of who we are.  Hold onto the light!

In times like these, there is so much we cannot do.  But perhaps we can do one thing -- and therefore it is one thing, indeed that we must do.    One thing I can do -- is brush my teeth.

The parts of life that come rushing at you -- have you thought of welcoming them in?

All about cravings.  Is a little of what you love good for you?

New discoveries on the fate of Vincent Van Gogh based on his last painting, ”Tree Roots” — reveals to us something amazing about ourselves and our lives.

Where I take a machete of sorts to my garden -- talk about my old radio show and declare that 'prayer is resistance'...

When we count who is around us -- and who is sick and who has died...we emphasize that they count/they matter.

Welcome to Breathing Out Stars.  Because this is the first episode I introduce why we have this title -- and I tell a story.