Roy Bowen

AN ANCIENT BUDDHIST TEACHING, THE NOBLE EIGHTFUL PATH, UPDATED FOR 2025 The Eightfold Path teaches Right Understanding, Right Intent, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, and Right Mindfulness. In full and humble respect for ancient teachers and teachings, I offer this Sunday Letter with words and meaning to…

NAVIGATING THE PATH TO AGING WELL #1 I am surprised to now find myself an elder of 80, and in May 81. All of this too fast and too soon. I need more time to prepare, to be ready for the physical, emotional, economic, and spiritual changes, challenges. As I…

ALL THE GOOD WORDS Easter Sunday provides a pause between winter cold and moving quickly into the heat and humidity of the Texas summer. Easter Sunday is the right time to give thought on where we fit in a troubled world as individuals, family, workplace, civic volunteer and with close…

ON BEING A NEIGHBOR Mr. Rogers began the PBS Children’s Show singing “Won’t you be my neighbor? Could you be my neighbor? I really want a neighbor just like you.” Jesus responded to the question “Who is my neighbor?’ With a story of breaking through walls and the rituals that…

THE SLOW AND THE BLUR OF CHANGE In the mid-1980’s, I decided to sign-up for a Sierra Club hiking trip in the Colorado mountains. Beginning at base camp in Creed, eight of us hiked Colorado mountains and over the Continental Divide. On day three, I sat in a mountain meadow,…

ABOUT TREES “Who plants a tree plants hope” Lucy Larcom “A true meaning of life is planting trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Nelson Henderson Why write a Sunday Letter about trees? When Beth and I returned to Fort Worth, we experienced the joy of trees…

If you want to hear a bird sing, don’t buy a cage…..Plant a tree A Personal Share: An early Melanoma growth was identified and removed by our Dermatology surgeon. The infection from the surgery moved to my left eye, which became at first swollen, then 90% closed. On a return…

In the midst of perceived darkness, I hold high my candle, saying look, see the path, witness the Hope. Yes, these are challenging days. I am finding, as may we all, my sense of the up and downs of daily life stretched and bent into new shapes by the streaming…

The CEO of Starbucks said he wants Starbucks to be everyone’s “third place,” after home and work. Come with friends, visit, perhaps purchase food and drink, but come and be a part of our place. In a similar way, I would like the Sunday Letter to be an ongoing source…

FINDING MY PURPOSE IN WRITING THE SUNDAY LETTER 2025 The past weeks have been chaotic, upsetting, and stressful for me, for many of us, perhaps for you too. I stared into a blank screen wondering what I could write about, what would I write about, as well as should I…