Hello, I'm David Paul Kirkpatrick

Moving to the Medium Platform

Dear Subscribers,

I wanted you to know that I am moving my blog to the MEDIUM Platform.  Thank you for being part of the experience here on Living in the Metaverse. I will continue to do some updates on this blogging site and the blog will stay “alive”,  but almost all activity will be on Medium.

You can also still reach me through the email attached to this blog at [email protected]…

Photo by PM Production | Usage through Shutterstock Editorial License

Psychologists point to the importance of integrating sorrow into our lives. All world religions point to it as well. Jesus: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Buddha: “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we…

God Made The Wolf. Man Made The Dog.

The Dog, Not Only a Furry Friend but Our Adopted  Child

Relative to the age of the planet, the dog is a new addition in earth’s menagerie. Charles Darwin initially believed that the dog was a product of the Canis genus, wolf-like animals which included wolves, jackals and coyotes. New DNA information from archaeological digs points to only one progenitor of dogs — the Gray Wolf.

The Gray Wolf

” Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Helmsman against the storm | Shutterstock

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jungian psychiatrist and post trauma recovery specialist, writes this to  social activists.  Estes is perhaps most famous for her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves.  I originally posted this in March of 2017. I thought Labor Day, 2018 was a good day to reprint it. This letter  appears, in part, on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ blog.The…

TOP TEN DOG-FRIENDLY COMPANIES TO RECEIVE THE 2018 DOG AWARD

Personal Note: This is an article reprinted from  MEDIUM. A few years ago, as winter approached, I faced four months of  cold and ice in a drafty two hundred year old home in New England. I woke up alone. I went to sleep alone. I worked, alone,  at home writing or editing for Rabbit Publishers.I was depressed. I decided to get a dog. I named him after the king. Arthur. Here he is on his ride home…

the dog is available free to you before its publication date of October 2, 2018

We are delighted to announce that our novel, the dog, is available free  for a limited time on the dog website. We are proud of the novel and want to get the word out through friends and family. Just click on the private link here. 

Simply input a working email address and our publisher will send you a download link in a responding email. There is no catch. The only thing we will probably do is…

An Exercise to Know Great and Sustained Joy

One of the Iona Photos taken after the storm at first light

Here’s a preposterous-seeming exercise that has brought me a great and sustained joy. A sensei taught me this little known exercise. A Sensei is a wise person because of his or her years.

I wanted to share this exercise with you in the hope that its application might be as powerful in your life as it had been for mine.

I have experienced…

Human and Dog Eat Together in the Morning

My niece, Molly, says that my corgi, Arthur, is a social eater. “When the human meals come, Arthur wants to join in too,” she says. She’s right. When we eat, he eats. I get up at 2 am. So does Arthur. Both Arthur and I start our day with Cheerios. I pour the bowls. He gets less. I get bananas. He doesn’t like them.

I first came upon the idea of…

James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor Reenact the Crucifixion in a Photo by George Rinhart

Photo by George Rinhart

  It is the way James Dean holds his boots to the ground.  It is a good rendering of the manner in which western civilization has come to understand how Jesus of Nazareth’s feet were nailed to the cross. One foot over the other foot. And there is a certain reverence in the holding of those boots by Dean, 24.

In the photograph, film star, Elizabeth Taylor, 23, as Mary and…

Jesus’ Bachelors—The Apostles, But For One, Were Most Likely Under the Age of Eighteen

Jesus’ twelve disciples were probably young, almost all under the age of eighteen and some as young as 15. All were most likely bachelors, but for one.

There is no indicator  in Scripture of a specific age for any disciple. So we look through the lens of historical context as well as  clues derived from Scripture.

In the time of Jesus, a Jewish man received a wife after the age of 18. Peter was…

Who’s Saint Patrick? A Man Named Maewyn Succat

Somerset, England is the possible birthplace of Saint Patrick

St Patrick was born Maewyn Succat in or around 380 A D.  As the green beer flows once again for St. Patrick’s Day,  I thought it  be worth a  quick visit through his  own written accounts of who he was and the time he lived.

Interestingly, the  works of Maewyn Succat, the Confessio and the Letter to  the Soldiers of Coroticusprovide…

the dog by david paul kirkpatrick and steven james taylor

I am delighted to announce that our novel, the dog, is being published by Rabbit Publishers as its first foray into adult fiction. the dog’s (no caps please) publication date is October 2, 2018. It will be available almost anywhere books are sold.

the dogis a novel about the timeless friendship between  a human and a  dog. It spans the birth, life, and death of Shadow, a rescue dog, raised by a…

100,000 Steps for Andrei’s Dog

On #optoutside Friday,  I walked 100,000 steps for Andrei’s dog.  The first 80,000 steps were pretty easy, but the last 20,000 were tough-going. Andrei just turned 8-years-old, has acute Type1 Juvenile Diabetes, and by doing handstands in the street and collecting bottles, Andrei has raised $20,000 for Diabetes Research. He goes to school and also rocks a skateboard.

I thought it was time to…

100,000 Steps in A Day – Ramping Up

In a few hours, I will be getting up at midnight  to start  the 100,000 step challenge. I have been slowly ramping up with 20,000 steps. Then 40,000 steps, and last Friday, 70,000 steps. Here’s my journal courtesy of iHealth from my iPhone:You feel like a kid inching a little further in the ocean, making sure you can stomach the cold sea water. With these last 70,000 steps, the water is up to my…