Posts Tagged ‘awareness’
the thawing process
Perhaps you were a quiet child. Calm and compliant. Perhaps you preferred stillness to movement. Silence to conversation. Books over people. Thinking over talking. Slowness over urgency. You kept the hard, dark and scary things to yourself knowing that expressing them would rock the boat. And rocking that boat may put your survival into…
Read Morenaturally present
Years ago, fresh off a small town bus, I was alone at a city crosswalk alongside dozens of strangers. I felt a collective impatience urging the “do not walk” signal to change. My impulse was to notice everything as if I had been enlisted to catalogue it. Sunlight reflecting off a bus windshield.…
Read Morefrom the outside, it looks like i’m meditating
From the outside, it looks like I’m meditating Assuming the noble posture feels like a homecoming after exploring seated practice from monks, mystics and madmen, through pages and in person, for three decades. Stillness is my home. Silence is my preference. And has been so since those early days when playing possum kept me…
Read Morea year of harmonic thinking
This time of year is naturally reflective for many of us. Our minds stroll through the aisles of the past and the shelves of the future lingering at points to notice particular items. These may be dusty experiences to let go of. Or gratitude when recognizing ones that warmed and bolstered us. Or maybe…
Read MoreGround and Notice
When you read this, your imagination may go into hyperdrive. You may imagine a mystical being floating through my gardens at dawn like a backyard Gandalf who converses telekinetically with the maples and the marigolds. Or you may see a more grounded, earthly being like Wendell Berry, a poet deeply connected to the land…
Read Morepomegranate perspectives
My partner is almost a whole foot taller than I am. This significant height gap means, among other things, that I am addressed frequently with Tolkien-inspired nicknames. It also comes with bouts of teasing about how it can possibly be that someone as short as I am can have so many opinions. …
Read Morewords in action – hidden beliefs exposed (part 3)
Richard Rodgers of the Rodgers and Hammerstein songwriting duo was the creative force behind the sentiments in the Sound of Music classic, Something Good, a song that was not in the original stage version but was written additionally for the 1965 film. Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could. So somewhere in my youth…
Read Moreto think or not to think
After posing questions to the meditation session participants, inviting them to reflect on those questions, and then sharing in a silent group meditation practice, a participant asked, “You give us lots to think about during the reflection time and then are we supposed to stop the thinking during meditation? I’m so confused about…
Read Moretime after time
“Don’t wish time away” I heard this phrase many times growing up. But we do that very thing every time we unconsciously use languaging like “I can’t wait!”, “I wish it was already the weekend.”, or “Is it 5 o’clock yet?” More subtly, we do it whenever we rush. We scurry from one activity…
Read Moremade you look
What do you see when you’re not looking? I was recently driving by a large group of high-school students who were milling about and what cut through the uniformity of the bravado in baggy jeans was a young couple, in the midst of the crowd, motionlessly embracing each other. There was absolutely nothing unique…
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