Search
-
July 2010 State-of-the-Household Letter
(Journal/Journal)
... like Iron Man, and now I’m cleared to walk on my own, though it would be an exaggeration to call my ambulation walking. It’s more of a goose-like hobble. But, the good news is my amazing body is healing ...
-
Twelve Doors is Leaving Home
(Twelve Doors/Twelve Doors)
It’s the last day of June, and I feel like the sabbatical is truly ended. I’ve enjoyed a full fourteen months of freedom to study, learn, and write. And, ta-da, the book is ...
-
Remorse, TN
(My Writing/Poetry)
... right-- the dishes done, the house clean, the fire blazing, Debussy playing softly on the radio upstairs, you splayed on the couch and reading so intently, like the news in books really matters-- ...
-
Where Do Prompts Come From?
(Twelve Doors/Twelve Doors)
... come from?” a workshop participant asked me not long ago, after we had grappled with a particularly challenging lead. I had to think a minute because it was sort of like asking someone how she keeps breathing. ...
-
Mahamudra
(Influences/Influences)
... comes down to how you actually experience the experience being alive. What does it feel like to be in you? Are you anxious? struggling? tender? reactionary? peaceful? composed? determined? What are ...
-
Misguided Yogi
(Lessons from the Mat/Lessons from the Mat)
... am stiff. I hurt all over. I have to modify my practice so much that it looks nothing like the vigorous practice I once had, or once strove to have. In my darkest moments of this injury, I thought ...
-
Lean in to the Difficulty
(Influences/Influences)
... of interacting with our experience. We look at it directly to see what it can reveal. We don’t turn away. I’m sure I have not explained those three methods very well, for they all seem much like ...
-
Can You Wiggle Your Toes?
(Journal/Journal)
... Is that the antidote to disappointment? You get that you are disappointed and that is a condition of living and you go on? Is that enough? I don’t know. A moment like this is very important in ...
-
April 2010 Reading
(Influences/Influences)
... all those who have not realized this, Arouse compassion, To help them find this pure and holy space. I would like to take this as the theme to my own approach to teaching. Welwood explains that ...
-
A New Kind of Balance
(Journal/Journal)
... like I’ve been derailed in my ability to experience life fully. I feel anger and frustration at having been thrown off my course, thrown totally out of life balance. Instead of living a full life, I’m ...
-
Pop
(Journal/Journal)
... this wonderful present-time happiness, I was clear about what I wanted the next four months of sabbatical to look like. I had a plan. I had expectations. I was moving forward in my life in the best ...
-
What is Your Dharma This Year?
(Sabbatical/Sabbatical)
... question, isn’t it? And when I was still enough, and real enough, I came to see myself characterized most by my gathering skills. Like the border collie I’ve written about earlier, I like to gather things ...
-
Get quiet, soften, a way will open.
(Influences/Influences)
... and said, “There are no more holds, I’m coming down.” How foolish was I? Like they would get a novice half-way up a face that was impossible to finish. Still, in my characteristic recoiling ...
-
I Think I'm Depressed
(Influences/Influences)
... Izzy and Lenore. I love the way Katz writes about his experiences with his dogs on his farm in upstate New York. Last month I read The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, and liked it so much that I will include in ...
-
January 2010 Reading
(Influences/Influences)
... into the curve, how to move with the car instead of resisting it. It works, and I liked it a lot. And you can’t help falling in love with Enzo. He is so loving, so wise, and he wants to be a human ...
-
The Worst Thing About Living Alone
(My Writing/Poetry)
... of the jay swooping over the yard is not quite as spectacular as it might be if someone were sitting with you. Or when you make a new soup--like lentil and sweet potatoes with onions and garlic and ...
-
The Last Issue Of Poets & Writers Magazine
(Sabbatical/Sabbatical)
... essay. The center section of the magazine is on INSPIRATION. All caps. I-N-S-P-I-R-A-T-I-O-N! What a taunt. Like I need inspiration. I wanted to rip out the pages and eat them. “Fires of Inspiration: ...
-
Day Eight of 2010 Retreat
(Journal/Journal)
... quilt, my willingness to stay in the afterglow of my nap, and the odd pleasure of the geometrical pattern of light on my ceiling. And then, something began to ease open, like a knot in a muscle that was ...
-
Best Laid Plans. . .
(Journal/Journal)
... coach, but my therapist, too. I wondered if my extreme anxiety about and dislike of writing was a sign that I simply should not be doing it. Aren’t we called to be joyful? If so, why do I keep returning ...
-
The Story of the Jade
(Journal/Journal)
... pot, packed the spilled soil around the roots. It looked just awful, all a-jumble in the pot. What had been an elegant, gorgeous specimen now looked like a collection of mismatched skinny limbs, the ...