It’s no accident that this site was launched on Independence Day. I’ve put a lot of effort over the past 20 years  into freeing myself of old habits and beliefs, a process I think of as unlearning.

I’d had a messy time of it to that point — teen marriage, drugs, alcohol, divorces, fear, rage, sadness — and my intention was to make myself bulletproof, impervious to the pain and disappointment of life.  Eventually I realized I had a spiritual itch that was just beyond the reach of conventional religion.

Over the next few years, I experienced a kind of spiritual puberty, meeting psychics and trance mediums, Sufis and Sikhs, New Age teachers and old-fashioned charlatans, numerologists, astrologers and Tarot readers. I crossed paths with fire walkers, meditators, yogis,  levitators, mystics, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi  (guru to the Beatles) and Shirley MacLaine herself.

Meanwhile, I was earning a living as a mainstream journalist (Bio). At various times, I was a reporter, sportswriter, feature writer, rock critic and environment reporter. I interviewed scores of celebrities, from a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore named Yo-Yo Ma to an 88-year-old freelance wise man and author named Paul Reps.

 At times I felt like I was living a double life. On the one hand, I was engaged in an extended excursion through odd and sometimes bizarre subcultures, and that required an open mind indeed. On the other, I was working in a business where skepticism is an entry-level requirement and cynicism is the post-graduate degree.

It was in Atlanta, where I was a senior writer at CNN.com, that I realized my time was up. I felt like something inside me was going to explode, and I knew it had  to do with being authentic. After all those years of telling other people’s stories, it was time to tell my own.

 I wanted to write about things like passion and purpose, about reinventing myself and redefining aging, and I wanted the freedom to offer a more affirming take on life.

That’s what this site is about. Some of those stories are already on the site under Commentary, and there are more to come.  Others will appear in this space as blogs.  I hope you’ll come along for the ride.