Raymond Underberg

There is a tiny little picture I snapped of my daughter a few heart beats after she was born. I titled the photograph “three minutes old”. I can see that grainy image in full flip-phone level picture clarity any time I want by just thinking about it. That really is a bookmarked end of my […]

Why can I not stop working? Why do I feel ashamed or worthless or vulnerable if I switch from building or fixing or mowing to writing or painting or learning to code? I have learned how to feel okay with meditating and doing yoga and exercising. I have no idea how this has been accomplished.

I have always had a hard time lying. It really unsettles me. For me personally, it makes me feel unsafe. I don’t shy away from lying because I am any more noble or altruistic (does altruism actually exist?) than anyone else. For the same reason that I am proactively nice to people more easily when

You are in luck; you get a two-fer today. The original title was going to be “Just keep moving”, but as I began fleshing out the idea, I realized that I simultaneously agreed and disagreed with the idea, so I added the ending modifier. I like it now. It seems more correct-ish.   The original

It may be time to explain explicitly why (I believe) I keep writing these blog postings. Why I am drawn to ask questions, seek answers, and then feel the desire and responsibility to share them. I know that this is one way that I manage or soothe my anxiety. I search for answers to challenges

Love is infectious and multiplicative. Love is boundless, the more you give it away the more you have! Love is hidden under rocks and walking through rooms on two legs or four. Love is so much more powerful than despair or hatred or even indifference. Love makes everyone better and happier and healthier. We can

Sometimes I have to learn something many times from many different directions before I really get it. This is one of those cases. Further, sometimes just a little nudge or nod towards something can unleash a snowballing of understanding and growth. It is fascinating in hindsight to think of all the coiled-up potential just sitting

I have learned many times that the obstacle is the path. But recently I really learned it. I finally tackled something that was actually keeping me up in the middle of the night. Getting resolution on this issue was only the beginning of the powerful epiphany I had that day. I am convinced that in

I keep a list of topic ideas to write about. I write when the words need to come out of me, or, if my stash of writings is getting dangerously thin. I find myself in the later camp this afternoon. Topic 62 looks pretty appropriate for today seeing as Russia has just invaded the Ukraine:

Our strengths are our weaknesses. Did that give you a slight chill? Alas, don’t forget that this also means that our weaknesses are our strengths. Does that somehow comfort us? Do the two statements sum to something greater than zero, less than, or exactly?   I feel that we spend way too much mental and