Raymond Underberg

There may be many apparent reasons to hurry. But there are many more powerful reasons to not hurry. And if you find yourself rushing through something or speeding to get somewhere in your car (like I can do all too easily), then you are the person this message is really intended for (mea culpa).   […]

This is Thanksgiving month. But, why wait a few weeks to celebrate? Everyday is Thanksgiving, or could be at least. I am feeling a little down today for some reason and I haven’t been sleeping well. I am sure those things are related. But I am determined to lift my spirits (and maybe sleep better

The beauty in a single grain of rice can sustain us. I mean this both literally and figuratively as well as serving as a challenge and a defiant brave coming out-of-the-closet proclamation.   The last few days I’ve been in and out of a state of what I will refer to as enlightenment or joy

The other day after finishing my morning meditation, I opened my eyes and experienced my typical few minutes of wonderful disorientation as I moved back into this world from the world of moving towards presence. Those couple minutes are a story for another day. As I transitioned, I could hear Bowie singing “God knows I’m

When I think of all the things in life that I really enjoy, the activities or spaces or conditions that provide deepest joy, they have a surprising thread running through them all. They are those things or times when I am lost in just one thing. What is also fascinating to me is that the

There is reality and then our approximation of it. Maybe there are an infinite number of realities actually, but that is a different talk. The key here is approximation. We make many many assumptions, approximations, short cuts to move through this world. One of the most basic, one that is at the bottom of that

It is currently raining and I’ve got what appears to be a sinus infection. I just largely undid today what I had spent most of yesterday working on. People in my inner circle are going through a handful of first-world-problems (sadly there are always a few facing larger threats). Likely for most anyone reading this

I know that people are basically good. I know that there is suffering. (I know that….) A cold pale ale tastes especially tasty after a hard day’s physical work. I can always do better. I am a decent person. I could always do more (or less). There is no best path. Sports can simultaneously be

Most of us “get” this cliché. It just makes sense. It is so familiar. We have likely lived this many times. But, let’s look around its edges, see what some of its corollaries are, some of its less obvious benefits. Heck, by the end of this little passage I may even convince myself to turn

We have to be willing to throw it all away. This can be understood easily by looking at this proposal from a few different perspectives. First, nothing that we know is right anyway. Or another way, all that I know is that I don’t know. A tree is not the same as the word tree