In 1977, researcher Bill Ballantine got the New Zealand government to declare a five square kilometer (two sq. mile) patch of sea near his laboratory as a marine reserve, so he could study the effects of excluding fishers. For ten years after that, not much happened. The bare, trawled seabed slowly started to re-grow its … Continue reading
People first arrived in America from Eurasia a minimum of 12,000 years ago and became what we nowadays call the Native Americans. The first European to land in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus, was to be the Norse explorer Leif Ericson (970–1020). According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse … Continue reading
In the ancient Middle East, it was shocking and dangerous if a woman left her family and went off traveling with outsider men. That sort of thing could get people killed. But in the gospel accounts, it says that Jesus “went journeying from town to town and village to village … [and] with him were … Continue reading
For centuries, great scientific and philosophical thinkers have suggested that humans can accomplish anything they put their minds to. Yet with all this promise for possibility, not every person realizes their potential. Here are a few modern day examples of people dreaming of one lifestyle yet living another: A discontented pharmaceutical salesperson passionate about environmental … Continue reading
For the first thousand years of Roman Church history, most priests were married. Only in 1074 did the church rule that all priests must either throw out their families or lose their jobs. Pope Gregory VII called it a “sundering the commerce between the clergy and women through an eternal anathema.”[i] Naturally, people ask why … Continue reading
The path to the famous hot tubs at Esalen The land under Esalen Institute is full of power and magic, and nowhere on the property do you feel it more directly than in the steaming hot mineral baths. Sitting in the rock-walled tubs, heated by the power of the earth itself, and with the endless … Continue reading
Dreaming of paradise seems to be non-productive, escapist, and likely to stand in the way of progress. Also, utopian dreams can cause fanaticism for some sort of new world order. Generally, such dreams seem foolish. But what else are we living for? Actually, most of us are wildly sentimental for dreams of paradise. When John … Continue reading
*With apologies to John Ford and John Wayne who made the 1956 movie of the same name about a searcher who had trouble accepting what he eventually found. Abundance of Life by Elaine Waller Alghani You know it’s going to be a long trip when you’re traveling outside your comfort zone, and that’s exactly where … Continue reading
