Jacob and Joseph of Krakow
Jacob and Joseph of Krakow A tale by Eugene Marckx In the night Jacob was startled awake by a dream voice. It called him to leave his dying wife and go west from the town of Krakow to the city of Prague. “Don’t leave me,” his wife whispered, and so he stayed by her side…
September 2022 My Life to Live
Do I live my own life? The vision for my life is… The reality of my life is… Jacob and Joseph of Krakow A tale by Eugene Marckx In the night Jacob was startled awake by a dream voice. It called him to leave his dying wife and go west from the town of Krakow…
Fathers and Sons
By Eugene Marckx Dale lived alone with his mother, except on nights when the banker’s top hat was hanging on her bedroom door, or the senator’s homburg, or the general’s roughrider hat. Dale slept on a cot off the kitchen pantry, so she could be available when they came through. Most days he’d wander along…
June 2022 Fathering
Questions for Myself Do I love my father?How did my father wound me?How did my father change my parenting? Fathers and Sons By Eugene Marckx Dale lived alone with his mother, except on nights when the banker’s top hat was hanging on her bedroom door, or the senator’s homburg, or the general’s roughrider hat. Dale…
May 2022 Mothering
Was it mothering or smothering?How was it to be mothered for me?Was I mothered by my father? Nestor By Eugene Marckx A featherbrained idler – what your grandfather said of him, and farmers hereabouts who should’ve known better, long after Nestor took to the road. Then he was forgotten, but the forgetting couldn’t quite fill…
March 2022 Mentors in My Life
Who mentors you?Are you a mentor?Did a mentor change your life? The Seven Directions LOST BROTHER Recording includes the poem and a short story of Baal Shem Tov (The Besht) By Stanley Moss I knew that tree was my lost brother when I heard he was cut down at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years; I…
June 2021 My Dad’s Not Here
Where did he go?Was he here but not present?Did he struggle to connect with me?Did he feel the loss like I did? Direction Calling [cpm-player skin="device-player-skin" width="450" playlist="true" autoplay="false" shuffle="false" type="audio"][cpm-item file="https://www.agatheringofmen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DirectionCalling.wav"]DirectionCalling[/cpm-item][/cpm-player]
May 2021 How About Really Listening?
Do I give the speaker my undivided attention?Do I use body language (nods, eye contact, etc..) to show I’m engaged?Do I ask clarifying questions?Do I immediately rush to judgement?Do I respond to win points? Mullah Nasrudin's Flower Garden Told by Eugene Marckx The Tangled Hills By Eugene Marckx Find a place at the edge of…
April 2021 What My Anger Really Wants
My Anger tells me to...When angers in charge of me what can I do?When angers in charge of me what must I do? A Thorn in the King’s Foot Adapted from a tale by Duncan Williamson, Scotland’s greatest storyteller ‒ Penguin (1987) Many years ago lived a king in a large castle. All around his…