Periodic writings and updates
Wednesday December 4, 2019
Unwrapping your gifts: Healing family wounds Perhaps you’ve had the experience of opening a wrapped gift slowly—taking the lid off the box, pushing the tissue aside, only to discover something you didn’t even know you wanted, right there in front of you. This is how I think about what it means to unwrap a self…
Read PostWednesday November 13, 2019
I need more time, more money, more practice, more quiet, more travel, more… I don’t give enough to my kids, to my work, to my community, to the planet, to… Do these lists sound familiar to you? The things you “lack”? The things you’re “failing” to do? These lists—the LACK LIST, the FAILURE LIST—have such…
Read PostFriday October 18, 2019
Raise your hand if you’re in training to win the busy Olympics. My arm is firmly up in the air; how about yours? Busy is the new competitive sport and the newest emotion in our repertoire—right alongside anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise. In fact, I bet it’s the most common response you receive when…
Read PostTuesday September 17, 2019
All my intentions, all my best-laid plans… All my commitments get tested through time. Time is the great equalizer that invites me to begin again and again. As a human, I know what’s generally good for me, what would support my most vital thriving self; and yet, do I always make those choices? Nope. Do…
Read PostTuesday August 13, 2019
dr̥g-darśana-śaktyor-ekātmata-iva-asmitā False-identification is confusing the nature of the seer or Self with the nature of the instrument of perception. In other words, false identification happens when we mistake the mind, body, or senses for the true Self. – Yoga Sutra II.6 So how does an ego-driven being check their ego at the door, anyway? The sutras…
Read PostThursday July 18, 2019
It truly is medicine “Laugh loudly. Laugh often and most importantly, laugh at yourself.” ~ Chelsea Handler This summer I find myself experiencing the subtle and persistent feeling of overwhelm. I’ve been “on the road” for nearly two months now; and though it looks like it’s all mosques in Istanbul, boats and sun-drenched islands in…
Read PostTuesday June 11, 2019
Each drop of water makes the river what it is. I often think of my life as a river. In that river, each practice on and off my mat—each asana, each seated meditation, each recitation of a mantra, each conscious encounter with another—is a drop. This metaphor connects me of the greater purpose whenever it…
Read PostTuesday May 14, 2019
Don’t just do something, sit there. After a thirty-plus-year relationship with sitting, I’ve let go of all extravagant expectations that my whole life will be “solved” and I’ll become permanently enlightened—steeped in divine bliss and released from the gale-like winds of my mind—through daily practice. In that sense, I’ve found freedom: The freedom of realizing…
Read PostThursday April 25, 2019
What is it worth to us, as humans, to consume resources without regard for the reciprocal relationship we have with our environment? I mean the outer ecosystem that sustains life on this planet; but I also mean our own inner ecosystems. It’s overwhelming and it’s easy to go about our daily lives with a woozy…
Read PostMonday April 15, 2019
This ground that supports us. This soil from which we get our sustenance, our water, our very life-force… our very lives. I don’t need to give you the statistics; you’ve heard scientists shouting into the void of capitalism, convenience and complacency for decades. Plastics, fossil fuels, the food and meat industries, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, population…
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