Genre
Services Offered
Speaking engagements
Most Recent Book Title
The Forest is the Tree: Three Big Reasons to Pay Attention to this Moment
Book Description
Since we were young children, we’ve learned to build narratives around what’s true about the universe and about ourselves. These beliefs build up year after year until they are so enmeshed with our identity that we don’t know how to untangle what feels true in our experience from the religious or other belief systems we were taught.
I am a Christian. I am an atheist. I am a Democrat. I am a Republican. And so on.
When beliefs and identity are intertwined, letting go of one threatens the other. But it is possible to get to a place where beliefs and thoughts are tools we can pick up or put down to create a more peaceful and congruent life.
The journey begins by learning to Pay Attention. Recognizing that reality is what it is, apart from the stories we tell ourselves about it. Taking our eyes off the tree in front of us and experiencing the breadth and magnitude of the forest. Observing the love and effort all around us and within us that paved the way for our very existence. In this space, there is freedom and acceptance that extends not only to ourselves but to the people around us.
You don’t have to do this alone. This book provides a conversational roadmap, free from shame and judgment, to offer some guidance and companionship along the way.
I am a Christian. I am an atheist. I am a Democrat. I am a Republican. And so on.
When beliefs and identity are intertwined, letting go of one threatens the other. But it is possible to get to a place where beliefs and thoughts are tools we can pick up or put down to create a more peaceful and congruent life.
The journey begins by learning to Pay Attention. Recognizing that reality is what it is, apart from the stories we tell ourselves about it. Taking our eyes off the tree in front of us and experiencing the breadth and magnitude of the forest. Observing the love and effort all around us and within us that paved the way for our very existence. In this space, there is freedom and acceptance that extends not only to ourselves but to the people around us.
You don’t have to do this alone. This book provides a conversational roadmap, free from shame and judgment, to offer some guidance and companionship along the way.
Location (city/state/country)
Idaho
Author bio
A line from the introduction of my first book, "The Forest is the Tree":
"If I were to try to articulate what I want more than anything else, it would be to reach my arms wide and eat the world, to thereby understand it. I want to know everything, the why and what of it. It seems to me that life is this peculiar thing where I’ve been plopped down in the middle of a great mystery called reality, provided with scant few answers about what the heck is going on here, then left more or less to my own devices for a few years until, one day, I inevitably die. What the heck IS going on here? What should I do? Why is all this happening?"
And that's what I write about. It sometimes feels like a frustrating and futile exercise, because in searching for answers I am continually confronted with the fact that I pretty much don't know anything. How am I supposed to write about what I don't know?
But, I suppose that's what "figuring this out" IS. What I've experienced again and again is that it's only when I start from that humble (and, yes, sometimes humiliating) place of not-knowing that I can learn much of anything. And the surprising fact is that every time I've set out to find answers to a question--even (or perhaps especially) when it's a question I felt sure there was no answers to--I have found them.
And so the only conclusion I can come to is that there's something very peculiar going on here, in reality. Like it's headed somewhere. And it's bringing me with it. And if that's true of me, it's also true of all of us. We're headed somewhere, and if we can avoid destroying ourselves (both as individuals and as a unified humanity) then we might just catch of a glimpse of truth, goodness, and beauty along the way.
So if you're looking for a different perspective on things, join me. Join me in this wandering wondering. Because you, too, can find answers to your questions. Can find a way to keep going. Can find a truth that makes sense to you, all the way down to the core of your being. I actually think that might just be what we're all here to do.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring, and for carrying on. But, most of all, thank you for being you.
-Michael
"If I were to try to articulate what I want more than anything else, it would be to reach my arms wide and eat the world, to thereby understand it. I want to know everything, the why and what of it. It seems to me that life is this peculiar thing where I’ve been plopped down in the middle of a great mystery called reality, provided with scant few answers about what the heck is going on here, then left more or less to my own devices for a few years until, one day, I inevitably die. What the heck IS going on here? What should I do? Why is all this happening?"
And that's what I write about. It sometimes feels like a frustrating and futile exercise, because in searching for answers I am continually confronted with the fact that I pretty much don't know anything. How am I supposed to write about what I don't know?
But, I suppose that's what "figuring this out" IS. What I've experienced again and again is that it's only when I start from that humble (and, yes, sometimes humiliating) place of not-knowing that I can learn much of anything. And the surprising fact is that every time I've set out to find answers to a question--even (or perhaps especially) when it's a question I felt sure there was no answers to--I have found them.
And so the only conclusion I can come to is that there's something very peculiar going on here, in reality. Like it's headed somewhere. And it's bringing me with it. And if that's true of me, it's also true of all of us. We're headed somewhere, and if we can avoid destroying ourselves (both as individuals and as a unified humanity) then we might just catch of a glimpse of truth, goodness, and beauty along the way.
So if you're looking for a different perspective on things, join me. Join me in this wandering wondering. Because you, too, can find answers to your questions. Can find a way to keep going. Can find a truth that makes sense to you, all the way down to the core of your being. I actually think that might just be what we're all here to do.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring, and for carrying on. But, most of all, thank you for being you.
-Michael
Professional Speaker Topics
Life, meaning, purpose, identity, self-discovery.
Favorite Quote or Personal Motto
"I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say." -Flannery O'Connor
