The BoomerGuy Chronicles

This January, I’ve resumed walks around my Ann Arbor neighborhood to  exercise and to "clear my head."  I’ve made the time to listen more, to receive what my environment is telling me. A walkabout can be a form of meditation, especially if one refrains from listening to music or to the latest podcast or news feed. That’s been a good thing personally. I expect it would be smart for everybody to do.  Yard signs abound with messages as varied as, "Thanks to Essential Workers" or "Save Our Postal Service” or  "Hail to the Victors" or  "A Ford School Graduate Lives Here". Earlier this month, one simple yard sign  message struck me hard, "LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN UNHEARD." This sign opened a door in my mind and heart that I've pondered ever since.  I began to think about all the people in all walks of life throughout human history that have been UNHEARD. Then I thought about people in my own life who have not been heard. Th

Spiritual thinkers and writers often reflect that growth occurs "in limine', that is when one is living, thinking, journeying between spaces. For me, the time between Christmas and Epiphany offers space and time to reflect on the past year, to ponder lessons learned, to plan, consider actions/resolutions for the New Year.  2021 was quite an eventful year for me.  I accomplished more travelling around the U.S.A. than in any time in my 73 years. From Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, from Acadia National Park in Maine to Redwood National Park in California, from St. Louis to Boulder, from Mississippi backroads to Vermont state parks.....  One reflection is that nothing replaces "being there", wherever "there" is. The cool breeze of the Atlantic coast, the bright colors of the Green Mountains in October, walking the Edmund Pettis Bridge in person, staring up at a 2000 year old Redwood tree ....... well, words just can't do this justice.  Another refl