Do The Opposite [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on June 1, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I am not a Gnostic nor do I identify as Christian but I very much appreciate a bit of text from the Gospel of Thomas: The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. I pulled it up on my magic computer to find what comment the AI master might offer: “…divinity is staring us right in the face in our daily lives, but our earthly preoccupations, illusions, and dogmas make us blind to it.” 

It is right in front of us. We do not see it.

When I was younger I learned to meditate. I was chasing presence. More than once I came to the hysterical realization that my chase was in fact doing the opposite of what I intended. Presence is not something that can be chased. Rather, it is experienced when stopping the chase. Stand still and breathe. Feel. See.

I recently had a conversation about connection and control. It brought me around again to what I learned in the folly of my chase. There are so many things I thought I could control – many that I didn’t know that I was trying to control – and my efforts to control brought me a mountain of frustration and nothing more. I found it an exercise in futility, a seemingly impossible task, to try and control my illusion of controlling. Just as presence cannot be chased, controlling cannot be controlled. One day, in a flash of no-duh, I understood that all I need do is the opposite: connect to the moment instead of trying to control it.

It was right in front of me all along. Control is born of fear. It is to erect a barrier, to contract. Connection is the opposite. It expands. It releases. How many times have I learned that the heaven I seek is available and visible if I simply stop, let go, or turn around and look? How many times have I learned that what I sought was right in front of me, patiently waiting for me to open my eyes.

read Kerri’s blogpost about HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

www.kerrianddavid.com

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The Daisy Path [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on May 25, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Sometimes life gives you a second chance. My second chance met me at an airport. She was holding a daisy so that I would recognize her. Wouldn’t it be lovely if every time life opened a heart-door, a second chance, “the right path”, it was marked with a daisy so that we would recognize it? I saw the daisy. We skipped out of the airport.

That day was thirteen years ago. The daisy has lived on the dashboard of LittleBabyScion since the day she held it at the airport. She held it when we skipped to the car. She put it on the dashboard for the drive from the airport where it remains to this day. It is now a very fragile shadow of a daisy but no less of a talisman. It heals. It inspires. It connects. It reminds us how very lucky we are.

The quote at the bottom of my 1440 newsletter today was from Martha Washington: “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” The daisy on the dashboard is both a thread that binds us to our origin story and a gratitude-marker reminding us each and every day that we have nothing to complain about, that his big ole universe extended an abundance to us that few people ever enjoy. We do not take that gift lightly. Our circumstance over these 13 years may have been rocky but our happiness continues to grow greater and greater because we never take the daisy-path for granted.

My sister-in-law once commented that Kerri and I work hard to keep the magic alive and it is true. We work hard but we also know a secret about the magic: the harder we work the easier it becomes. Cultivating wonder is a feedback loop; wonder cultivates us in return. Wonder is the hallmark of the daisy path and I am more than astounded that one day, thirteen years ago, I stepped off a plane and met my destiny holding a daisy.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THIRTEEN

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Everyday, Everyday [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on May 11, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Sometimes it feels as if this great big old universe pops us on the head. It wants our attention. It wants us to hear its music beyond the noisy ruckus. This is one of those times.

Many months ago, late at night while Kerri was sleeping, I came across a video called, The Life We Have. I wasn’t paying too much attention and thought it was a hiking video so I clicked on it. I was not prepared for what I saw. At the end I had to stifle my sobs so I didn’t wake Kerri. So, when last week it popped up again in our feed, I told her she had to see it: Rob Shaver, living with stage four cancer for over 20 years, squeezing every ounce of gratitude he can from the life he has. His story is raw. His telling is pure. We both sobbed.

The next day L sent us a video of a man, a friend and teacher, speaking of orienting his life toward gratitude.

The next day D told us of his dedication to live from a place of generosity: generosity in thought, in action, in spirit.

The next day, while sitting in the backyard, seven vultures dropped from the clouds – seven – riding the thermals, spiraling low, just over our heads, and then circling higher and higher until they disappeared again into the clouds. It was gorgeous. Symbolically they represent purification and transformation. “I guess we’d better start paying attention,” I said.

In this past decade, ours has been a path of fire. Layers of dross and armor have been burned away. Bags of life-garbage have been reduced to cinders. We have no illusion that we are garbage-free but we are certain that the junk no longer dominates our view. We are not nearly as invested in murky grievances as once we might have been. We’re more and more clear-eyed in appreciating the moment we’re in and less and less interested in being anywhere else. More and more we hear the music in all things.

“The best thing you can do for your lungs is sing,” Rob Shaver said. This from a man who runs miles a day, a man whose lungs are filled with tumors. ‘”Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday…be grateful for the life you have.”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE MUSIC

www.kerrianddavid.com

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See Number Five [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on May 4, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

How do I start this post?

Choice #1: Although it is a platitude, it is never-the-less accurate: where you place your focus grows. I have come to believe that one of the few choices we actually have is where we place our focus. (yawn).

Choice #2: Among my many flaws is a hyper-focus. Kerri just rolled her eyes. Okay, I can be…obsessive. Once I start a project it is nigh-on-impossible for me NOT to think about it. Shortly after we moved in together, we were carrying a desk from the upstairs to the basement. The doorbell interrupted our task and we left the desk standing on its end. After our visitor left I started for the stairs and Kerri said, “Let’s leave it until later.” I writhed all night and into the next day…

Choice #3: Combine choice #1 and choice #2 and call myself out on my hypocrisy. Do I have a choice of where I place my focus or not? Am I obsessive, meaning that I have no control over my focus OR am I the zen master I imagine myself to be and masterfully place my focus on the flow? The desk be damned! It will happen when it happens!

Choice #4: On social media I can be whoever I want to be! It is, after all one big viewfinder! I may not be able to control my focus but I can place your focus on my zen master identity and lead you to believe all manner of positive things about me! I can retract my story about moving the desk! I need never betray my obsessive focus dilemma. In my concocted self, I can claim to move through life obstacle-free!

Choice #5: The impact of a glass of wine on obsession.

Choice #6: The great truth of my collaboration with Kerri, my wife, my 24/7 companion, my creative copilot, is that I can’t get away with anything. If you happen to swallow my blather, if you fail to recognize that I am an obsessive gasbag fixated on moving a desk, she will set you straight. She will put your poor abused-and-confused focus placement aright! About me, she will mutter, “…teaching what he most needs to learn…”

Choice #7: If I was a magician I’d be a master of deception.

Choice #8: See #5.

read Kerri’s blog about THE VIEWFINDER

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The Blink Of An Eye [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on April 27, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“What the head makes cloudy/ The heart makes very clear” ~ Don Henley, In A New York Minute

“It’s as if last week never happened,” she said. We’d prepared for weeks for the trip and in a flash, in a New York minute, we were back home. “So much happened but now it seems like I dreamed it.”

We stayed in the same place that we stayed during our previous trip six months ago. Climbing the stairs into the small apartment it felt as if only a few days had passed. “Weird!” I said and she nodded. “It’s like we never left.”

Our recent undertaking has necessitated some serious life review. We’ve reached back decades to find details, we’ve driven the streets and neighborhoods where she rode her bike as a kid, we’ve stood in places that she stood nearly fifty years ago. “Has it changed?” I ask.

She shakes her head, “The trees are bigger.”

It’s a marvelous thing to have fifty years of life to revisit. It is a marvelous thing to be able to reach across decades and touch innocence. Sometimes this task has seemed nearly impossible. Sometimes fifty years of time, fifty years of life, seems like a flash. The blink of an eye. A New York minute.

We stood on the beach. It was an unseasonably hot day. The last time we stood on this beach we needed extra layers. The wind was brisk. This day there was no breeze. We were slightly disoriented because it had been months yet felt as if we’d stood on this beach yesterday. “Something is different,” I said. She agreed. “What is it?” I asked. What’s different?”

“It’s mine, again,” she said. “After so long. It’s mine.”

read Kerri’s blog about A NEW YORK MINUTE

www.kerrianddavid.com

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And Then What Happens? [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on April 20, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

Once upon a time…

And then what happens?

It was sunny and bright at the beginning of our long drive. Little did we know that a few hours later we’d be stuck on the freeway, standing completely still in an endless construction delay, with tornado warnings blaring on our phone: “Get into the basement or a safe place now!” What do you do when there is no safe place? What happened next?

We have a good chuckle at the expense of Google Maps. It wants to be a soothsayer. It wants to tell us what’s coming, what’s in our future. “There are police ahead.” Or, “There’s road construction ahead.” Usually, GM tells us about the construction when we’re already in it. “There’s a lane closed ahead!” GM warns.

“No kidding,” we respond.

“It’s a 14 minute delay,” she chirps. An hour later, traffic at a standstill, Kerri says, “I don’t like the look of those clouds.” The sky darkens and bubbles. And then what happens?

In the little village we walked by the door of a psychic. The sign read, “Tarot Readings”. I admit that I was tempted to go in. I’m always tempted. Who doesn’t want to have some sense of what is about to happen?

On our long drive we talked about our careers. Artist’s careers are not like plumbers or lawyers. It is possible to be artistically successful and financially unsuccessful. The same cannot be said for accountants or electricians. When I was running theatre companies I regularly reminded hardworking-yet-disheartened actors that, according to the union that represented them, less than 2% of the membership actually made a living acting. The same cannot be said of the machinist’s union or the teamsters. Artistry is not a business, it’s more akin to a service-calling. It’s not for the weak of heart. It’s not for those who worship the idols of stability and consistency. “There’s a silver lining,” she said. “We’re probably better prepared than most people for dealing with uncertainty.”

We managed to get off the freeway before the storm hit. Sitting in the parking lot of a gas station we wondered what to do. We were still hours from our destination. The rain started gently but soon became a downpour, driven by gusts. Buckets of rain with attitude. The truck jolted with each blast. “Well?” she asked, “What now?

“Life’s like a novel with the end ripped out…” Lyric from STAND, sung by Rascal Flatts

read Kerri’s blogpost about UNCERTAINTY

www.kerrianddavid.com

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In The Form Of Food [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on April 13, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

As you probably know by now we close-out our day by watching hiking videos, usually of people attempting long distance thru-hikes like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. Much of the time on trail the hikers dream of food. Hamburgers and pizza, burritos and pancakes. Hiker hunger fills their imaginations with Romanesque feasts. They ache to satisfy their deepest-food-yearning.

I used to delight visiting a bakery with Joe. He would press his nose to the glass and moan with delight at the prospect of eating pie. Making a choice was never easy and took considerable time. Patrons would come and go with bags full of goodies before Joe would at last settle on a selection. He reverently carried his wild berry or apple cinnamon pie to a table, his first taste was nothing short of adoration.

We delight in cooking together. I am the sous chef and Kerri the masterful Julia Child. We have favorite recipes which are supplanted by new favorites which help us rediscover the old favorites as if they were brand new. Like the hikers, when we plan our menu for the week be begin to dream of Wednesday’s dinner or “We can’t wait for Saturday!” Sometimes the anticipation is too much and we rearrange our plan to eliminate the delay in our gratification. We are not good at delayed gratification. It’s something we will have to work on if we actually attempt a thru-hike; we imagine a drone service bringing meals-on-demand to us on the trail. Or, perhaps, a chef hikes ahead of us with a mule train of supplies to make all that we yearn to eat.

Late in the night we heard the clang of the useless squirrel guard on the bird feeder. It sounds like someone dropped a metal garbage can lid. We flipped on the back porch light and peered through the blinds. A raccoon was feasting on the bird seed. He expertly worked the mechanism to deliver new seed to the tray. He snacked like an uninvited guest at a wedding buffet. We chuckled at his delight, his nonchalance. The bright light did not deter his dining. His worship was more gluttonous than Joe’s pie-idolatry but no less satisfying. I suspect he knows that we will refill the feeder and do nothing to deter his future food frenzy.

We believe that in these dark days it’s important to affirm in any way possible that there’s enough love to go around, especially if the love comes in the form of food.

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE RACCOON

www.kerrianddavid.com

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Walk In Peace [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on April 6, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

I wanted to write about the day, long ago, that my Canadian friend questioned me about my country’s inability to deal with its black/white problem. His country does not have the history of slavery and Jim Crow that mine has. They have a different history of racial division. I was in Edmonton facilitating a diversity workshop and found that I had the most superficial of answer that amounted to “I don’t understand it either.”

I wish I was having that conversation with him now. I have a more complete grasp on my nation’s history. It’s not that we are incapable; it’s that we don’t want to. Our division is a strand of our national DNA. We’ve never settled the question, “Who do we mean when we say, We The People”? Right now, 26 years into the 21st century, one of our political parties is once again whitewashing our history while actively blaming people of color for our nation’s ills. The propaganda machine is working overtime to breath new life into the mad-mad-19th-century-notion of a master race. It continues to be profitable and manufactures dross easily swallowed for a populace largely ignorant of its history.

I wanted to write about my Canadian friend’s question but I found myself hoping that this latest loop around the racist velodrome would be the last. People who study change reassure me that significant growth follows a clear pattern: people revert before they progress, they step backward into the comfortable known, find it empty or ill-fitting, before stepping into the new. My nation is way overdo for a step forward.

I found myself staring at 20’s shoes. Converse Peace Signs. They were Kerri’s dad’s shoes and she gave them to 20 after her dad passed. Walking in peace. What would it take for us to embrace our diversity and flip our racism on its head? Diversity is, after all, in every situation in nature, a strength. Prosperity in all its forms is dependent upon rich diversity. Mono culture is death.

Photographer Angélica Dass believes our troubles stems from our “binary” color palette.* We’ve reduced each other to black and white. It inspired her to create a color wheel of humanity. Her project Humanae matches the full palette of beautiful human skin tones to their Pantone color. Her point (among many): race is a social construct. “Kids don’t describe themselves as black and white – we teach them black and white.”

We need not reduce each other. We need not exclude. We are capable of celebrating and supporting and appreciating. We are capable of embracing the science: there is no genetic or scientific basis for race. “It’s largely a made-up label, used to define and separate us.”*

I wanted to write about my Canadian friend’s question. I found myself staring at 20’s shoes. A symbol in black and white, an ideal beautiful and available to all the rich hues comprising humanity’s color wheel. A factual story capable of defining and uniting us.

*National Geographic, Special Issue: Black and White, April 2018

read Kerri’s blogpost about PEACE SHOES

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Vis-À-Vis The ♡ [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 30, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

In relation to the heart. In regard to the heart. Be careful! This heart of mine is made of soft tissue.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…” Advice from Rainer Maria Rilke. I find that it is much wiser to take the advice of poets rather than the counsel of politicians. Poets seek truth beyond words. Politicians often use words to obscure truth.

With so much unsolved in my heart I have spent my lifetime developing a love of questions. The same is probably true for you. I admit that there are days that I tire of loving the question and shake my fist at the sky, crying, “For once just give me a goddamn answer!”

Those fist-shaking moments always result in silence-from-the-sky, which inevitably leads to a question, “Is it so hard to give me an answer or guidance or direction?” You gotta love that question!

I’ve noticed that the sky never answers immediately. It takes its sweet time. However, in time, sometimes after years of holding a question, the symphony resolves. A path opens. Or closes. An answer arrives, usually following a surrender.

“Our heart always transcends us.” There he goes again. Rilke. And just what does it mean that our heart always transcends us? It’s a good question. I imagine it will remain unanswered so it’s best not to ponder it too much. Pick it up, give it some love and carry on.

read Kerri’s blog post about VISÀVIS

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Feigning Blindness [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on March 23, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Conscious avoidance, often termed “willful blindness,” is a legal doctrine where a person is held legally responsible as if they had actual knowledge of a fact because they deliberately avoided confirming it.” ~ AI

I was having some fun at the expense of the republicans-in-congress, imagining the endless fodder they inspire for cartoons. These self-proclaimed cowboys strut through the halls of government yet quake in their boots at the prospect of independent thought. They fear acting or speaking without first seeking permission from their authoritarian-wannabe. These pretend cowboys will not mount their horses without first seeking approval of El Taco.

It would be hysterical if it were not so destructive to our democracy.

Conscious avoidance is a term in criminal law: “It requires that the individual subjectively believed a high probability of illegal activity existed but took deliberate actions to avoid learning the truth.” If they were not protected by law it would be an easy-peasy no-brainer to prosecute the entire Grand Old Party for their conscious avoidance of the grift, their see-no-evil antics providing cover for The Epstein Class, for their “Deliberate Indifference” to the war crimes currently enacted by this administration.

There are many ways of defining conscious avoidance but my favorite is this: “Acting with “eyes wide shut” to avoid confirming a suspicious fact.” It’s yet another possible cartoon: the elephant , like an ostrich, buries its head in the sand.

And what about criminality beyond deliberate indifference? The sham otherwise known as The Save America Act is a prime example. They are doing more than willfully blinding themselves, they are holding the gun during the robbery. They are actively and specifically attempting to disenfranchise voters. They are no witnesses but are active participants. This is criminality beyond indifference. It is corruption. El Taco is in trouble and wants his coward-posse to stop the democracy train. Instead of rugged cowboys these republicans are cut from the same cloth as Barney Fife. Only, as Kerri just cautioned me, Barney Fife was harmless. These clowns are dangerous.

While they are busy feigning blindness to the obvious destruction, we will remind them with our votes and our protests that we see them clearly. As a democratic nation, as a community, we refuse to blind ourselves or look the other way.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CONSCIOUS AVOIDANCE

www.kerrianddavid.com

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