I returned to my garden yesterday after a rather challenging work trip. Last week’s focus on “fascinating” was extremely helpful while I was away. But returning home to my garden immediately improved my mood. It was like coming home to a surprise party of plants. In seven days, the espalier apple and miniature … Read more
Listening with Intention Listening is the mindfulness focus word this week. It may seem like the easiest thing in the world and at first glance it appears that not much effort is required. Yet mindful listening is not a passive activity. Instead, we are actively participating but in a quiet and intentional way. Although there … Read more
Winter solstice always carries the symbolism of light dispelling darkness. That image seems particularly comforting right now as we have entered a dark period in which people full of hate and mean intentions have captured the castle. After weeks of mucking around in the darkness, I am ready to embrace the light. I’ve written a … Read more
It’s late August and my garden is a chaotic, wild, and beautiful “mess”. The pumpkin vines have twined up the apple tree with pumpkins resting on branches or in mid-air. The runner beans are preferring the support of tomatoes to the trellis, so beans appear to be growing out of the tomato plants. The cosmos, … Read more
“We are all connected; to each other biologically; to the earth chemically; and to the universe atomically.” That’s from Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, author and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC. His explanation is simple and to the point. It might be easy to miss how profound the idea is. For much of human … Read more
Spiritual Practice A path, a journey, a long climb to the top of the mountain….all are analogies for spiritual practice. The implication is that we are trying to get somewhere. We start HERE and we get THERE, wherever THERE is. We are moving on a path toward enlightenment, or at the very least a reduction … Read more
Last year on March 18th, my good friend Beverly passed away. It was shocking and disorienting as Beverly seemed unstoppable to me. Even though she’d been born with a serious physical disability, she didn’t let that slow her down. She used a motorized wheel chair and you really needed to stay out of … Read more
