Author Archives: John Swinburn

Love is everywhere.  It is the soft squeeze on the shoulder.  It is the peck on the cheek, the unexpected hug.  It is the cryptic text message and the laughter at a silly joke.  It is right here, right now.

When trees shed their leaves, they reveal beauty inaccessible in full leaf.  People do the same when they shed their clothes. It doesn’t matter whether the tree is gnarled and imperfect, any more than whether the person is wrinkled and worn. … Continue reading →

I think it’s in our best interests to accept all hugs and kisses that come our way, because they tend to engender reciprocity, which in turn does the same.

I continue trying to defy failure, to insist it cannot control me. Some days, it understands the depth of my defiance. Some days it resists, challenging the legitimacy and strength of my commitment. One day, the championship will no longer be … Continue reading →

I wonder what pure silence is like.  I’ve never experienced it, at least not that I recall. And, frankly, I think I would recall it if I ever experienced it. Even in the quietest room, with sound-deadening walls, a person hears the sound … Continue reading →

I have a theory. The more time a person accumulates through life, the more compact that time becomes, filling the mind with experiences that grow denser and denser.  That increasing denseness causes time to be experienced in “fast forward.” Time is like a black hole … Continue reading →

Open invitations are understood to be without expiration, but an occasional dusting keeps them bright and shiny.

“Practice makes perfect” is an adage we wish were true, but is not.  “Practice tends to improve,” though, doesn’t have quite the ring to it.

Sunrises are reasons enough to rise early. But getting up before 2:00 a.m. is stretching it.

There’s a connection in my dreams to my conscious reality, but sometimes it’s flawed.  It can be a bit like picking up multiple broadcast radio stations on the same band; lots of static and competition between music and news.

If all of us, at every level in the social strata, would accept the legitimacy of the customs and practices of people one level up and one level down, we’d all be a lot happier.  And we’d be happier, still, … Continue reading →

The key to having a good attitude, I’m coming to understand, is to acknowledge the lunacy of trying to convince highly opinionated and stunningly uninformed people to share one’s enlightened perspective.