James Nugent

People fear putting the reason and or faith to a test because it seems to intolerable for there to be ambiguity in our world view. Yet there it is. Humans don’t understand everything nor will they ever. Human beings are finite creatures. We will not achieve omniscience. We don’t need to...

Kayaking like most extreme sports is potentially fatal. The hazards are too numerous to list here. However, with proper instruction and equipment the hazards can be minimalized. This book is not meant to be any kind of instruction. It is only a general discussion....

This book is a slice of my life. In most ways my life has been rather normal, and in a few ways, it has been extraordinary. I figure I am in the last two decades of my life....

The Scripture said something like, “pray always.” It was a strange concept. How could a person pray all the minutes of the day? It was a bit of a mystery to me which I would not resolve for another 25 years....

Over the years I have occasionally noticed a failure to communicate effectively within the more than 100 ministries and services at my home parish (Saint Michael) in Olympia, Washington. This problem is not limited to one Catholic parish but common to all organizations that utilize volunteers...

Sailing and adventuring on Puget Sound has been a part of my life since I was at least eight years old. I grew up in Edmonds, Washington, and lived with a view of Admiralty Inlet. I had a 25-foot Coronado sailboat in the harbor. Adventures with my father included trips to the US San Juan Islands...

When devout Catholics marry, they marry for life. They promise each other and God that they will not enter into another marriage until one of them dies....

Then the economy turned on the middle and upper middle class. Then suddenly, it wasn’t possible to always find a job that provided a suitable amount of money to maintain our chosen lifestyle. After that millions of our generation became the new poor. A strange thing happened after coming to...

For a modern culture that does not highly value life, it is paradoxical that we don't want to talk about the dying process or the possibility of an afterlife....

For twenty years I searched for my perfect true love. I failed miserably until I asked God to help. Miracles do really happen....

The fog is just beginning to disperse after sunrise but this is not a problem for navigation because you are just going to follow the western shore....

This is a story about what it is like to spend 40 days of your life with the forty days for life movement....

In January 2014 I stumbled upon an announcement that the South Sound Estuary Association was looking for volunteer beach naturalist. For $50 I would receive training in beach ecosystems and marine biology. In return I was expected to provide 15 hours of volunteer service to the general public on...

Sometimes it is prudent to give up. I was paddling hard with the wind and waves coming across my port bow. The storm had calmed down a bit and I was making a mile long mad dash from The Evergreen State College Beach to Young Cove. To the right inside Young Cove was my lagoon and my Madrona tree...

I went to learn more about Esperanto, a language that was invented 126 years ago....

August 2014: I set my trusty 14-foot kayak in my lagoon. It was a rising tide heading south, and I had several hours before it reversed and dumped some 13 or more feet of water out of the inlet. Eld Inlet is approximately six nautical miles long. The southern two miles can be navigated only at...

From time to time all of us have social conflicts. Sometimes we are invited to dance with people who have more external power than us, for example, a supervisor or an elder sibling or parent. Sometimes we might be invited to struggle with someone we don’t care so much about; like a stranger or...

This audiobook will examine a few of the beliefs in the Roman Catholic Church. I have no idea if I will be Catholic when I am done. Yet a faith untested is worthless. Disclaimer: I have made a meticulous effort to write about the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. However, I am not a...

In Catholic tradition there are numerous forms of prayer....

When one is doing what God wants us to do; God will turn all our problems into positive events....