I was raised Anglican and, as a youth, wanted to be a priest. As a teen, the devastation I saw in my own family would not allow me to accept divorce as part of God’s plan. As I understand Anglican teaching, marriage endures until the death of the husband, the wife, or ‘the relationship’. Surely, that relationship is the marriage. This ‘third death’, then, amounts to saying that marriage endures until it doesn’t. I couldn’t accept that part of Anglican faith. If that is wrong, how much is wrong? Everything? I could no longer be a priest so, when I turned twenty, I moved to Fremont, California to study at Ohlone College. During my first Christmas there I found myself all alone. Everyone I knew in California was busy with family and friends; my family and friends were all back in Vancouver. The angst of that isolation led me to seriously ponder why I was – why anything was. Why be?
     I read voraciously; religion, science, and philosophy. I found one common thread; stated in physics as, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”; in Judeo-Christian tradition as, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”; and in eastern thought as some variation of karma. Even some rather rough characters I met claimed, “What goes around comes around,” to justify their brutality. I decided to embrace that idea. That led me to consider the corollary. Every action must be a reaction to a previous action. Was there a first action? What was it? I wrestled with that thought for days until I realized that time is finite; it’s measurable. No matter which units of time one chooses, those units must be stacked on a beginning to reach now. So, what was before the beginning?
     I could find two propositions, everything rose spontaneously from nothing or everything was created by an entity greater than all that is. I can’t believe our universe arose from nothing so, by default, must accept it was created. Once I found that beginning, my despair evaporated. Everything exists by the creator’s desire; I am because my creator wants me to be. Of all the possible beings my creator could create, my creator chose me! I now look at everything around me as a key to unlock the mystery of the nature of my creator. My life has become a journey of discovery and appreciation.

     Each person’s life is a journey from, at minimum, birth to death. It is a journey that, as much as one may desire autonomy, can’t be made alone. We begin that journey largely from a place of our parents’ choosing and follow a path which must stay within social boundaries. Most times, this occurs subconsciously. We are groomed to fit into society without appreciating that we are conforming to the will of others. We learn to use the toilet, dress appropriately, tie our shoes, eat broccoli, avoid touching hot stoves, etc. This is how society operates, yet each of us will, at times, bump up against the boundaries, incurring wounds and scrapes to our ego. At such times we have four options; suppress our beliefs, amend our beliefs, act to amend social norms, or remove our self to a group which holds different norms. These are times of distress, but also of spiritual growth, where we come to terms with our agency, interdependence, obligations and limitations.
     In The Journey Series, I hope to bring my readers to some of those boundaries. I hope they feel some degree of discomfort. That is a sign we are measuring our own system of beliefs against views presented in my books and find one or the other lacking. I hope to face, together, great questions of life. Who am I? Why am I? Why is there anything? How much is enough? Do I have a purpose? If so, what is my purpose? How do I find it? Is there free will? I hope that my books will inspire my readers to live purposeful, integrated lives. I hope that my readers will ask questions of me and invite me to converse with them so that we may journey together to a good end.