Presence Is A Rare Commodity December 15, 2014 • 0 Comments The other night, I spent an hour chatting on Facetime with my son who is at college in Santa Cruz. My other son and I were curled up in bed, laughing and talking in front of the computer, and it almost felt like we were all together in one room, which made me smile, and reminded me of days when they were younger, long before they encountered tragedy.Read more
Mindfulness Exercises: Breaking the Spell of Unconsciousness November 3, 2014 • 0 Comments There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t find myself drifting off into the no man’s land of mindlessness. Almost without noticing, I can go from being engaged in an activity, say writing, and then off I go into the land of a million useless and scary thoughts. It is truly astonishing how often it happens. An erratic,…
Olympic Mastery and Meditation: The Common Thread February 21, 2014 • 2 Comments Olympic figure skating and ice dancing have the same effect on me as The Shawshank Redemption — I can’t resist watching, held spellbound by the skaters as they spin and twirl themselves around the solid, and oh-so-frozen slab of ice. As a child, I fantasized about being one of them, but the sad truth is I cannot skate to save…
Meditating on a Hillside with Thích Nhất Hạnh October 23, 2013 • 3 Comments “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” Thích Nhất Hạnh I am excited to share how the simple act of saying yes landed me on a hillside, meditating two feet away from a luminary human, with the sun shining down upon…