On a spring day in 1874, a reporter for Harper's Weekly traveling with a surveying party on a wilderness road through a remote mountain valley in Colorado's San Juan mountains, wandered onto an abandoned campsite where he found the mutilated and rotting bodies of five men. Immediately a search began for Alfred Hammit (Packer), a hapless drifter and the sole survivor of the ill-fated prospecting expedition, suspected of murdering the five men and living off their bodies during the severe wi...

A gabby garden. Not housebound by a housedress. Gene Kelly’s not the only one “happy again.” A comforter in sleepwear. Ward Cleaver carries Yogananda. The Big Dipper meets a Honda. Three close encounters of the third kind …with music. A young white-coat truth-teller. Unlikely bloomers and likely singers. Sounds of silence and sounds of war. Following the Aspens and vice versa. Being still. Being held. A dad, a prayer, a doctor. And, what about next time? Gifts in a life. Each in its turn.

Joe’s music has been known and sung around the world since the mid 60’s. His four degrees are in Philosophy, Theology, Education, and Counseling and Guidance. For the first 22 years of his work life he wrote music, recorded it and performed it; gave lectures, conducted workshops, and facilitated retreats—throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Wise has been a resident of Arizona since 1995. Before that he lived 55 years in Louisville, Kentucky wher...

The Truth in Twenty. The Twenty is minutes. Timed writing. The rest is arriving at emotional truth with pen in hand. I am encouraging writing as self-revelation and as a tool for finding doors and expanding awarenessmostly, I hope, by example. The Truth in Twenty also serves as a memoir at seventy-three, exploring specific events, moments, and experiences of my soul and spirit.

The Truth in Plenty. The Plenty is minutes. No clock on the pen. The Plenty is the wide scattershot of Grace that permeates our lives, some of which we wake up to, as we open ourselves to the melodic and the unsung, to the lustrous and the plain, to the mostly simple, ordinary and everyday, to the Truth of what is.

The World Needs Your Art, and only you can make it.Ever wondered why you just HAVE to make something, anything, or you will just burst? Artists are born, not made. And if you yearn to create, that makes you an artist, no matter your medium. Photography, painting, performance art, writing, singing, or fashion, all are forms of expression of the creative soul.Often, creative people are not encouraged to pursue their heart’s desires by the world at large. They end up frustrated,...

How to Find Awe, Meaning, and Wonder in Everyday Life"One of the best spiritual books of 2020." — Spirituality&Practice.comBestselling author and TEDx presenter Allen Klein returns to find and define awe. In his latest book, he shows readers how to escape the everyday ruts of life by opening their eyes to the awe and wonder around them.Exploring the human ability to be in awe. What does it mean to b...

Do you believe in life after death?Too often I find that the subject of death is addressed with goofy speculation, close-minded stubbornness, or outright fear and avoidance. So let's bypass the "Death for Dummies" approach and take a deeper intellectual look at death to better understand the important role it plays in our lives... and especially what it can teach us about how to live.As far as our human bodies are concerned, death eventually captures all of us. So far as I ...

A black girls tears are poems that take you on my journey of heartbreak, hope, family, and love. When you first see the title Im sure you assume that this book is full of sad poems; but I've learned that tears are a form of strength in many ways. If the sun shined all the time nothing could grow; things would burn up and there would be no harvest. Tears are like the rain; they help to cleanse and come in many forms. They can derive from joy, pain, confusion, frustration, happiness and LIFE...

The Forgiveness Fairy is a modern Fairytale about the act of forgiveness. It gently leads the reader through the journey of forgiving. Sharing how to forgive the self, then those that have been harmed by our actions, and finally forgiveness of others that have harmed us. Through the eyes of the Fairy, wisdom is shared by Masters of Peace whom all have the same message to open the heart, release anger, pain and doubt, to forgive and thereby know peace. The Fairys recipe is Understand your a...

The day after my father died I had a remarkable experience.I went out for a walk and felt his presence. For the first time in my life, we began to genuinely communicate on the most fundamental level -- spirit to spirit. I discovered what a truly remarkable being he was. Or should I say, is! Because I know now that there is life after death, and it makes me feel so happy to know he's still around.Does that sound weird?Well, it isn't anymore. At least, not for me....

“What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams.”― Margaret Atwood, The Blind AssassinHow do you solve a problem like your mother?A ferocious flash fiction story, now a finalist for the Derringer Award.Accompanied by an exclusive essay by the author on the exhausted genesis of the story at Kris Rusch and Dean Smith's Oregon mystery workshop, the writing life, and the Derringer short list."Be...