Achilles Heel by Antoine Borel Rogat Suddenly a story comes to you for no reason at all or for perhaps it is that pain in the ankle. In this case it was the latter. In Greek mythology we learn of Achilles, a hero of the Trojan War. His mother felt her young son was destined for greatness so she dipped him into the River Styx to make him immortal. It worked– except for one spot that didn’t get dipped. That spot was his heel where she was holding him.  The dipped heel became known as the “Achilles heel, and it was his one vulnerable spot.  In the Trojan War, after…

The Forest, Delaware River, Pennsylvania When I was younger I believed that the “big picture” – the forest – was the best way to see the world. I took on large issues, especially in college, that I believed in and I approached them from a large organizational view point. I was a member of the H2O Club that valued environmental issues long before anyone was talking about water and its preciousness. Bottled water was not popular yet and Perrier had not invaded our shelves in plastic and glass containers. We tried to educate students about this. There were many issues including the boycott of grapes and Gallo Wine in support of migrant workers, as well as…

Illustration by Sir John Tenniel In 1975 I saw a remarkable piece of improvisational theatre at The University of Chicago. It was “Alice in Wonderland, as brought to life by André Gregory and The Manhattan Project. Gregory’s methodology was simply to allow an ensemble of six actors to explore the text and find the meaning of the piece on their own. Gregory would remain silent for hours during this process. The actors were able to create a wonderland and become both the characters and the world they inhabited –the hole, the falling, the caterpillar, the mad hatter, the Queens. They even found a way to shrink and expand their bodies.…

I am a lover of nature and animals. I do not see them through binoculars, but through the vision of my own eyes. I am constantly looking. In the past few years I have learned some things about animals both domestic and wild. Many weekends I live in Dutchess County which is full of all kind of animals and one of the most common and perhaps least beloved is the deer. I happen to love deer. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania which has a lot of deer, but in my youth deer were still quite hidden and tucked away in the higher parts of the countryside. Occasionally when I was…

Recently at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Millbrook and Lithgow, parishioners offered up hand knit scarves and caps, beautifully knitted for the seamen traveling into the harbor of NYC. It made me think of the tapestry of change that we experience in our lives. After the offering of knitted items we sang the Navy Hymn Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,  Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep; Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea. The sea is a powerful image of force and change. And all change can bring its own…

The Botanic Garden,  Brooklyn Grief is not the absence of faith, but the price of love. This past year I found myself mourning not only the death of my father, but also my mother. Yes, they had lived long and good lives, but that was specifically why I was mourning them. I had known them so long, and it was unfamiliar for me not to hear their voices and to share visits with them. My father was my compass and mentor in all things spiritual and my mother a guiding force in the world. It went on for some time until I came upon the power of music to transform…