Phillip Berry | Orient Yourself

My Dearest Fulton, You came into this world the other day and we were filled with the joy and hope that is unique to the occasion of new life. Everything is literally waiting for you. For your mom and dad, the selfless love that only parents can feel, poured out and they started smiling from […]

The stands were full; row upon row of cheering fans. The close-cropped field, deep-green with fresh white lines, was bathed in a cascade of light cast from the spires hidden in the shadows of the stadium. The teams stood along the sidelines, opposing one another in bright uniforms now stained with grass and dirt, as […]

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster    And treat those two impostors just the same; Rudyard Kipling, from “If” Take a few minutes and consider the defining moments of your life. In the successes and victories, what stands out? Were the moments dramatic? Were they quiet? What made them defining for you? In our […]

“Thank God it’s over,” the weary flight attendant declared, patting my shoulder as I passed her on the way to my seat. Her sentiment had the sound of finality and left no room for disagreement. I could hear similar observations echoing through the plane as I surveyed rows of unfamiliar faces made all the more […]

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo I came across this post in a “Drafts” file. All it contained was the title. The date: August 8, 2017. I have no idea what triggered it or why I didn’t complete the thought in a published post. Such is […]

If you are depressed, you are living in the past, if you are anxious, you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present. Lao Tzu Rolling toward the end of the year, we may be inclined to look back over the previous months with mixed perspective. One […]

No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken. Ralph Waldo Emerson In a recent Northwind post entitled, Our Health System Isn’t Broken, I argue that the problems we face in healthcare aren’t because the system is broken but because it’s working as it […]

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding Justice […]

Consider for a moment the people in your life. They orbit you in circles emanating from your center. Some are close in proximity. Some are close in connection. Some are close in quantity of contact. Some are close in shared beliefs. Some are work connections, some are social connections, and some are both. Some you […]

Three is a bit of a magic number. From a narrative perspective, the rule of three is said to be more engaging and memorable to readers or listeners. In many cultural traditions, rites of passage often occur over three days and three nights. From a biblical perspective, three represents Divine wholeness or completeness as reflected […]