Author Archives: Michael Done

Night-time Poem to Violin Accompaniment

Even at age 71, I sometimes wake in the night frightened. It happened earlier tonight, around 2am. It’s happened thousands of times, going way back to when I was a little kid. Yet it often still shocks and shakes me, … Continue reading

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Doors to Freedom

Here’s a little collection of things I’m trying to turn into habits. I’m using them to avoid and even reverse some of the unnecessary complications and self-created stresses in my life. I think of them as doors to freedom. They’re … Continue reading

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Not Interested

A two week retreat in Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh’s acclaimed Zen practice centre in France, helped me see more clearly what I’m really interested in. It also revealed many things I’m seriously not interested in. If it’s true for you, as is it for me, that there are many things you are not interested in, then you just might be interested in this little diary entry … Continue reading

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“And God saw that it was good”

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). I don’t think so! Continue reading

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Beautiful Backslider

A Christian friend of mine from way back, Geoff, posted on Facebook recently: “The older I get, the more convinced I am that Christianity is true. Where do you sit and why?” As it turns out, I’m what’s called a … Continue reading

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Creed

Today I decided to write out a personal creed, though ‘creed’ feels far too grandiose a term. All I’m really doing here is putting words to a few of the things I do and don’t believe in the area of spirituality. Interestingly, I’m finding it quite a raw but exhilarating experience to come out and say these things. You might like to try it too. Continue reading

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The One Promise

There’s only one promise you should ever make. It’s a promise to yourself and it’s to live a life you love. Continue reading

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Bus 72

What words could articulate the wonder of disappearing completely, yet being so totally present that you feel the very life of the universe pulsating in your own arms and legs? This little account is the best I can do, a kind of chook-scratching, a crude sketch of that momentary taste of eternity – a taste which, once tasted, is subtly with me forever. Continue reading

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The Story of Me – A Brief Autobiography

Once upon a time, on a small-ish planet called Earth, my little life began. I was born as a human, bigger than a porcupine, smaller than a cow, faster than a caterpillar, slower than a horse. Continue reading

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Peaches and Cream

For all the other shy boys I grew up with.
Yes, we all wanted to ask her to dance … but we just couldn’t! Continue reading

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Ello

I did not crêpe up … to say goodnight … I just crêped up to say … ‘Ello! Continue reading

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The God I Love

The God I love asks nothing of me. I ask nothing of her. She doesn’t even require me to believe She exists. As fate would have it, I don’t. Continue reading

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Flying Away

Out of our hungry hearts a journey starts, we ache for more. And out of this endless night begins a timeless flight we’ve never taken before. We’re flying away … Continue reading

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I Like You

One thing all boys know is that girls are really, really nice. One thing all us SHY boys know is that girls are also really, really scary! Continue reading

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Advice to my 14-Year-Old Self

Advice to My 14-Year-Old Self: I know you don’t fit easily into this world. The truth, my love, is that most of us don’t. But most of us surrender to the world and turn ourselves into people who do fit. And then we no longer fit into ourselves. And, as we grow older, this makes us miserable and insane. Continue reading

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Prayer to Self

Come, let us speak tenderly with one another, beloved one.
Sit up close to me where you can hear me breathing.
See, I am vulnerable and undefended too.
Like you, I have no way to protect myself
from the pains and fears of being alive and being me. Continue reading

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