About Me

I’m a Stoic practitioner obsessed with clarity.

My story began when I was five and I freaked out because my kindergarten teacher left the room. I tried to escape, but some twenty children built a human wall to stop me—that’s my earliest memory.

The fun stuff didn't start until I was 11, when I learned my first guitar chords. Soon after, I started playing the violin, which eventually became my profession.

I moved to Albuquerque, NM, when I was 23, and it has become my favorite place in the world.

At 28, I moved to Germany. But it wasn’t until I was 35 that I found the Stoics. At 37, I started foil fencing, and last year, at 39, I joined a Tai Chi group that follows the Patrick Kelly tradition.

Shortly before turning 40, I decided that my last meal as a thirty-something was going to be a molten cake from Chili’s. That was wonderful.

I was expecting a midlife crisis, but astrology tells me it won’t happen until I’m 42. In any case, I enjoy writing posts and essays as a way to find clarity, and that’s what I intend to do here. I hope you feel inclined to subscribe and stay in touch.

Teachers

  • Henry Hutchinson

  • Omar Velazquez

  • Carmelo de los Santos

  • Erik Wiegardt

  • Manfred Watteler

  • Katrin Schmitt

  • Gerardo Roemer

  • Tamir J. Satorra

  • Jayani A. Molina

Practices & Schools of Thought

  • Alexander Technique

  • Tai Chi

  • Foil Fencing

  • Stoicism — College of Stoic Philosophers

  • Stoicism — College of Posidonius

  • Stoicism — Stoic Monastery

  • Astrology — Faculty of Astrological Studies

  • Core Shamanism — Foundation for Shamanic Studies

Books

  • A Confession — Leo Tolstoy

  • Letters from a Stoic — Seneca

  • Journey of Souls — Michael Newton

  • Path of the Sage — Erik Wiegardt

  • Creation in Stasis — E. L. Sudworth

Other Thinkers and People I Admire

  • Jordan Peterson

  • Michael Harner

Talks & Lectures

Music

  • Sleep — Eric Whitacre

  • Voces8


Places

  • Albuquerque

Selected Work

What Shaped Me

People, books, and practices that earned a place.