It’s been said that I’ve quit smoking. It’s been said by me. I put it in print back in January, in this very venue, in fact. I meant it then. And yet I continued to smoke. This is what addiction is like. You mean something with all your heart. But still, you find a reason [...]
Waking Up | Global Oneness
In this video from Global Oneness Ven. Tenzin Palmo asks “”How can we collectively wake up?” asks British-born Tibetan Buddhist nun Ven. Tenzin Palmo from the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. With heartfelt passion for human potential, Tenzin Palmo describes how we all desperately want happiness, but we undermine that possibility through ongoing [...]
Now More Than Ever We Need Mindfulness | Larry Yang
There is freedom in awareness and action. This post outlines, in a beautiful and inspirational way, a few of the ways we can find our way back home. As we already are feeling divisiveness of current politics and upcoming presidential elections… As we feel into pain and complexity of people holding seeming irreconcilable values which [...]
Adventures in Paint
I know nothing (more on this later). I thought painting my bedroom was just a matter of slapping some paint on the wall. Okay, that’s perhaps more crass than I really mean (and meant), and, well, here’s the truth: I had no idea that painting my bedroom was going to be a freakin’ spiritual event. My dear [...]
The Power of Vulnerability
I’ve always said that in order to be strong Superman had to learn how to be super vulnerable. Read Lubna Salah’s post from elephant journal on the strength behind vulnerability. Up until the last few years, I had rejected the idea of allowing myself to be vulnerable, if even on a subconscious and cellular level. [...]
The Beauty of the Do-Over
What Do sad people have in Common? It seems They have all built a shrine To the past And often go there And do a strange wail and Worship. What is the beginning of Happiness? It is to stop being So religious Like That. -Hafiz I am a big fan of the do-over. Perhaps it [...]
I Became a Connoisseur
1. I know it like I know the shape of my face in the mirror. I can tell when something changes in it. When there is a new wrinkle. An unexpected twinge. Today it is living in the upper part of my stomach. Just behind the diaphragm. That is the base of it. But in [...]
I Will Tell You if You’re an A*shole
Original article appeared in The Elephant Journal (January 23, 2012), written by Sarah Simmons. It’s important to give attention to the quality of people that we choose to spend our time with. I live in an intentional practice community where we have agreements to hold each other to our agreements. This kind of living is not for [...]
Attaining Inner Strength | 40 Lessons
Original article, “4o Lessons for Finding Strength in Hard Times,” written by “Marc” and posted on Marc & Angel Hack, Life, January 1, 2012. There are 40 lessons here about loss and learning how to move on, let go, and keep living. Something we eventually all have to learn how to do without attachment or [...]
…And It Need Not Be Returned.
It is time to say goodbye. She died on the side of the freeway 100 feet from the entrance to the Caldecott tunnel. On December 30, 2011. She made it up the hill, but refused to make it through. I was alone, the kids and the ex out of town in our other car for [...]
On the Soft Underbellies of Mollusks…
1. I think I know the moment when I learned what love is. I was 22 years old. I was on my third or fourth date with the woman who would later become my life partner. My wife. The mother of my children, my closest friend. And then my ex-wife. And then my personal and [...]
The Day When Nothing Was Good Enough…
Once I was on a dating website. It was one of those ones that asks you a million questions and uses a complex algorithm to find matches. Better living through data mining and all that. One of the 656 questions I answered publicly was this one: “If you don’t do anything for an entire day, [...]