My Ultimate Family

This is the last 2/5ths of an essay I wrote to help me deal with everything swimming through my head this week.  I think these two parts stand on their own, but if you are ambitious enough please check out the full version. Part IV The coaches with UP’s year round...

175 Grams

I had the words a few minutes ago. I sit down to write, though, and I realize they’re fleeting. My mind goes back and forth, wanting to write and share, and then wanting to close my eyes until sleep takes me. But I’m going to write. They’re mere words, and while...

Sarah VanWagenen

Many days lately – and many to come – have sadness because of the suffering, and now passing, of Sarah VanWagenen. One comfort in these days of sadness, and the days to come, is having had the gladness of her life. In Ultimate Peace, as in life, we open...

Defining Truth

Today’s lesson is to try to define truth. The peace-makers often say “my truth” and “your truth,” but can truth also be objective? Depends on who you talk to (or whether you choose to talk at all)… I have crossed the Wall. (Kind of...

Train Stations, Beaches, and Connections

It was early in the morning and I was at the train station in Acco, about to undertake the nearly 24-hour journey back to Chicago. A moment occurred – a moment like any other, but at the same time it proved to be so much more. It was a moment of eye contact...

Hat Tournament Creates Space

I embarked on my first Ultimate Peace experience last weekend. This has been an organization with which I’ve been infatuated with since I heard about its launch in 2009. Middle Eastern conflict resolution was a smattering of oversimplified, idealistic theories...