The purpose of this blog is 1. to investigate the quest of the heart; and 2. to promote these four core values now sorely needed for the well-being of ourselves and our planet::

• Compassion
• Simplicity
• Integrity
• Peace

I’ve recently survived a harrowing, devastating personal crisis that has altered the course of my life in both profound and practical ways, motivating me to review, investigate, re-learn these values to a depth beyond my previously superficial understanding of them.

Why publicize this? I think it’s dubious that one can learn from someone else’s mistakes. Everyone has to make their own mistakes, and learn from them – or not – as best they can in the privacy of their own home, head, and heart. I nevertheless feel obligated to share, as one means of practicing the values themselves, augmenting my own learning (selfish, I know), whether others learn or not; and a forum can only help us all.

I do not intend to list the particular details of the crisis that brought me to this point, primarily because they are immaterial, but also because I do not want the crisis to in any way take over the focus of this project. That’s not to say that no autobiographical elements will appear. When such elements add to the discussion, I may use them; but for now, that is not my plan.

As a result of this crisis, I’ve reached the conclusion that my purpose on this planet is forgiveness, but I don’t view this as one of the values I’m hoping to promote. Although I do believe it’s a practice for everyone, and that it is indeed a major solution to the world’s problems, it’s a personal conclusion, not necessarily a universal value: not everyone’s purpose. It’s also a verb, unlike the others, indicating it’s active, a perhaps definable set of activities one would practice in the day-to-day business of living.