relationships
-
WannaHug — Values-Driven Shopping With a Twist
You can’t make positive choices for the rest of your life without an environment that makes those choices easy, natural, and enjoyable. Deepak Chopra As a child, I loved going grocery shopping with Mom. I would like to think she appreciated my help, but for her it may simply have been a chance to spend… Continue reading
-
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world. Robert Frost I am not the kind of guy who overthinks death. My life is too full and rich for that.… Continue reading
-
July Meditations, Reflections, Travelogue, and Scrapbook
My life, I realize suddenly, is July. Childhood is June, and old age is August, but here it is, July, and my life, this year, is July inside of July. Rick Bass July is very important to me. First and foremost, it is the month I was born. It’s hard to imagine what Mom endured… Continue reading
-
Podcast Episode: Redefining Productivity
Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/07/06/redefining-productivity/ Pip: What does it mean to have a productive day when nobody’s keeping score anymore? That question turns out to be a lot harder than it sounds. Mara: Andrew Prokop takes it on directly in this episode — we’re looking at what productivity actually means once… Continue reading
-
Redefining Productivity
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful. Marie Curie During… Continue reading
-
Podcast Episode: The Burden We Call Love
Note: The underlying article can be found at https://ajprokop.com/2026/06/29/the-burden-we-call-love/ Pip: There’s a phrase most of us have said at least once — “I don’t want to be a burden” — delivered with the quiet confidence of someone who has never actually thought it through. Mara: Andrew Prokop has been thinking it through. Today we’re covering… Continue reading
-
Where do the Children Play
It is right that he too should have his little chronicle, his memories, his reason, and be able to recognize the good in the bad, the bad in the worst, and so grow gently old down all the unchanging days, and die one day like any other day, only shorter. Samuel Beckett As a grandfather… Continue reading
-
Podcast Episode: Free Range Retirement
Note: The underlying article can be found at Free Range Retirement. Pip: There’s a quote that opens the post we’re covering today: “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” Which, honestly, sounds less like a warning and more like a sales pitch. Mara: Andrew Prokop is two years into retirement… Continue reading
-
Free Range Retirement
The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off. Abe Lemons I love a good coming of age story. It doesn’t matter if it comes in the form of a movie, book, or song. I love thinking about the transition from one way of living to something completely different. In many ways,… Continue reading
-
Randomness
This wretched brain gave way, and I became a wreck at random driven, without one glimpse of reason or heaven. Thomas Moore Linda and I are up at Lake Sallie for our annual cabin opening extended weekend. This involves cleaning up mouse poop, putting patio furniture back into place, coordinating with plumbers and dock installers,… Continue reading
-
Healthy Sexuality
Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge. Alice Walker Note: I tried to not use the word “sexuality” in the title of this article, but the alternates were either too clunky or sounded as if I was trying too hard to sound clever. “Life is… Continue reading
-
Everything is Everything
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost 40-plus years ago one of my dearest friends spent three years in prison. For the sake of his privacy, I will call him Greg. I didn’t know Greg back then and he tells me that he was not… Continue reading
-
It’s Your Story, Keep it Real
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. John Lennon Every Wednesday at 10:00, I gather with 10 to 15 similarly aged men for conversation and fellowship. We often start our meeting with the big news of the day, but it doesn’t take much to shift into subjects more personal and relevant… Continue reading
-
I Want You to Want Me
All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. Charles M. Schultz Want (verb): To wish, crave, demand, or desire. Need (verb): To require. The way I read the newspaper hasn’t changed in a very long time. I begin with a quick glance at the front page before turning to… Continue reading
-
Rising to the Level of Love
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. Tao Tzu I recently finished reading Luis Alberto Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels. Like most books I read these days, I found it in one of the many Little Free Libraries scattered around my neighborhood. Thankfully, I live among… Continue reading
-
On Death and Loss
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross After a break for the holidays, I am back to my Coming of Age journey. So much has happened since the pause. Most importantly, ICE… Continue reading
-
Unraveling the Knots
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. Roger Hornsby A couple weeks ago, I wrote of learning how to ice skate after decades of unrequited love. It was a feel good story about overcoming hesitations… Continue reading
-
On Beloved Community
Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Yes , love — which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies-is… Continue reading
-
First Frost
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. J. R. R. Tolkien We had our first frost of the season on Saturday. Having lived in Minnesota since the 1980s, I know that no… Continue reading
-
On Being Human
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin I began an on-again, off-again relationship with Unitarianism sometime in the late 1990s. Admittedly, I was introduced to the religion by my wife who grew up Unitarian. I was raised a Catholic, but somewhere… Continue reading
Can You Hear Me Now 