Wow!  I can finally access my blog.  It took a great deal of fiddling with Gmail, Google, and other things, but I think I have now regained my ability to post.  I am grateful.
     I had a good but often wild and crazy summer.  In early July I was diagnosed with a stress fracture (I run, bicycle, and swim and do the occasional triathlon).  The doctor said eight weeks.  OK.  One morning, as I was coming the down the stairs of our home, however, my crutches slipped and I fell down full force on my injured leg.  Ouch, ouch.  I passed out.  Ironically, a taxi was waiting for us to take us to the airport to fly to Boise, Idaho.  We went anyway.
     After an uncomfortable night in Boise, I decided I should go to the emergency room. X-rays revealed that I now had a formal fracture in the neck of my femur.  The attending orthopedic surgeon recommended immediate surgery.  So it was that barely one day after leaving my home I found myself in an operating room in Boise, Idaho!  Happily, surgeon and hospital were excellent, and I am making a good recovery.
     When I got out of the hospital, my wife and I nonetheless found time to drive east and visit the Grand Tetons.  We reveled in them; they're one of our favorite mountain ranges. Originally, I had planned to backpack in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, then camp in the Tetons.  Now, a change of plans.
     As I remarked in the last blog I was able to post, several weeks ago, weakness produces its own fruit.  I am very much restricted in my physical activities, which has given me more time to read, reflect, and write.  As many a mystic--of any faith--has remarked, a steady diet of reduced pace and enforced silence does wonder for the soul.  I am no different.


     During my recuperation, I watched with amazement as literally millions of people flocked around the U.S. to see the total solar eclipse.  How intriguing that in our allegedly "scientific" and "rational" age so
many people found various degrees of spiritual enlightenment in a natural phenomenon.  However hard we try, we cannot avoid our spiritual sides.  We may be material beings, but we are spiritually driven.
     Thanks for reading.  I hope to be posting more regularly soon.