It’s o.k. to seek love.

Beloved reader,

I am redoing the rotb.org website.

Again.

Why am I redoing the website again?

Because a website older than (blank) years is (blank minus one) years overdue for a facelift.

(The standard is three years for small sites and six years for large sites.)

✧✧✧

While placing into the background a composite grid, 15 wide by five tall, of images featuring my book and the reader’s face, I realized something.

I have realized how thankful I am for you.

✧✧✧

I’m thankful that you are reading this — these words.

✧✧✧

Feeling seen/heard makes us feel loved.

And this makes sense.

The first quality of love, after all, is recognition.

Feeling seen/heard is vital to feeling loved.

And me knowing that you are out there somewhere, reading my words, makes me feel seen/heard and thought of.

Knowing you are reading this help me to feel assured that I exist and am loved.

✧✧✧

I hope you feel the same, dear reader.

I hope you know that you exist.

I hope you know that you matter.

I hope you know that you are loved.

✧✧✧

10-year-olds are seemingly alright with asking to be seen.

However, you may be decades older. And you might not feel comfortable asking to be seen.

I ask you to challenge yourself.

Quickly, before you think about it too much, send me an email; Type “Hi,” and send it to me. I’ll read it. I promise.

✧✧✧

Rumi:

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

✧✧✧

It’s o.k. to seek love. I promise.

Last Tuesday. I’m sitting in an Adirondack chair, my feet resting on a well-weathered log here in Sisters, Oregon. It’s my family’s annual week-long vacation at the same beautiful house we’ve rented for the past four summers. My favorite spot. Just above the little creek. Most of my worries are 153 miles away. ✧✧✧ This Tuesday. I’m sitting in my

Five More Wisdom Biscuits

June 11, 2026

1. I know garbage “You should put the garbage bins back where they were before you remodelled,” I tell the managers of the Grant High School construction project when they host a neighborhood forum. “Funny thing, that,” the lady in charge says, “It’s a bit counterintuitive.” She explains something city planners learned about beaches. “If there is a garbage

Light-Lifting

June 11, 2026

✧✧✧ Introduction ✧✧✧ A long-form follow up to May’s 14/40 Five Wisdom Biscuits about smiling. ✧✧✧ Outline ✧✧✧ A Story Deep Shit About Smiles The Joke My New Workout Plan ✧✧✧ A Story ✧✧✧ I exercise religiously—by which I mean I’m very compassionate and affirming. Today, I didn’t challenge myself to attempt an eight-rep back squat 5–8