Title: Holistic Biologist

Gender: Male

Age: 46

Sun Sign: Cancer

Chinese Sign: Water Tiger

Location: Kansas City, MO

On the surface, just your average middle-aged white guy living in the Midwest. But I've been blessed with some interesting experiences - a lot of flying as the son of a jet fighter jock, catching electric fish and pirahna in Venezuela as a neurobiology graduate student, hiking and diving in some remote and beautiful places as an adventerous youth, learning about Taoism from a Tai Chi master, and running my own biomedical laboratory where I study muscle development. I'm a practicing martial artist, professor of biology, father of 2 girls, new warrior in the mankind project, and student of christian mysticism. My main desire is to become more balanced and whole in my life, so that I can be truly at peace and share that peace with others. For me, 3 things have been key in that process: having a holistic and meditative practice (Tai Chi), being connected to a loving group of men interested in transforming themselves and thus the world (Mankind Project), and humbling myself before God to learn the deep mysteries of creation (Order of Christ Sophia). I enjoy combining these experiences and knowledge in the classroom to teach what I would call spiritual or holistic biology - a new view of biology combining the scientific truth of quantum physics with the spiritual truth of all the world's great religious teachings. I am not at the forefront on this, I am simply synthesizing the insights and teachings from ancient texts and modern seers in this area (some of whom include Cayce, Chopra, Dossey, Pert, Lipton, Shealy, Myss, Sheldrake, etc.)

As a research scientist, I do a lot of technical writing. This is the only creative piece that has come through me so far. I hope you enjoy it, I'd be interested in hearing what you think and feel when reading it. I can tell you that I cried while writing it…..

Long ago, or today, or many years from now - a raindrop is born. It comes from the nothingness of a cloud. As it grows, it becomes aware that it is light and wet, and it can ride the wind! It plays with the other raindrops, sometimes changing into funny shapes to get some laughs. Or it flattens out to ride the wind like a frisbee. Other times, the raindrop and it's friends bounce off each other like playful bumper cars. The raindrop has a simple and very happy life.

One day, the raindrop realizes it is falling. It realizes it does not really know where it is, where it came from, where it is going, or why it even exists. Suddenly, it feels very cold and alone. It sees that the other raindrops are falling too, but they look far away, and they look sad and frightened.

As the raindrop falls, it is blown about by the wind, but this no longer brings joy and happiness. Instead, it brings fear. Where am I going? What should I be doing? How can I stop falling? Who will help me?

The raindrop needs answers, so it watches and thinks - thinks and watches. It sees raindrops above and raindrops below. All are falling. High above, the clouds glide along, and the raindrop suddenly realizes it was born there, in the soft embrace of the shiny white clouds. The miracle of it's birth in those beautiful clouds makes the raindrop happy, at least for a while.

Now it knows where it came from, but it still does not know where it is or where it is going. So it watches and thinks, thinks and watches. After a while, it sees far below it a vast ocean. The raindrop realizes that it will eventually fall into the sea, and thinks that when that happens it will die. It is terrified, and sees that it's friends are scared too. Now the raindrop knows where it is going, but that does not make it happy!

Eventually, the raindrop figures out that being afraid of the ocean does not really matter; it is going to fall in the ocean anyway. So now it knows where it came from, where it is, and where it is going! But, it was still unhappy. The other raindrops had figured out the same things, but they too were not happy. Finally, the raindrop figures out why - it was because noone knew why this was happening to them.

Why did they have to be born, only to fall through the sky and disappear into the ocean? The raindrops were frustrated and angry that this was happening to them, and some of them even blamed the clouds. They had forgotten how much fun it was to change shapes, bump into each other, and ride the wind. Instead, the raindrops were sad, and angry, and frightened because they could not figure out why they existed.

At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds and filled all the raindrops with a warmth and a light that they did not think was possible. They were filled with joy and happiness, and they remembered how to have fun.

And far away, on the shore of the ocean, the sad face of a little girl suddenly brightened as she held her father's hand, pointed out to sea, and shouted with joy “Look Daddy, a Rainbow”!


And long ago, or today, or many years from now - a snowflake is born………