What’s growing now (a pause)
What’s growing in your garden? Not just in your outside garden, which I hope is flourishing, but in your inner garden as well—the land of hopes, dreams, possibilities, compromises, and creations. This year in the northwest, winter felt long, and then spring, when it came, seemed rather ambivalent—tantalizing us with a few warm and sunny days […]
A Gift from an Unusual Source
What if you could strengthen the qualities you need by feeling your connections with friends who have died? I know this may sound a little weird, but hang with me. You don’t need to believe in the afterlife, or really anything, to follow what I’ve been discovering. That’s often the case with folks we have loved […]
Playing with Paradox
To be able to hold a paradox requires holding the tension between opposites—seemingly contradictory forces. When the world appears too chaotic it’s tempting to want to run from the prickly arms of complexity into the simplicity of black-and-white thinking. Except that usually doesn’t work. For example, we can suppress the contradictions within us by trying to kill off parts […]
When who we are is how we are supposed to be
Last week I received the latest episode in my ongoing series, “Lessons in Loss and Grief.” A close, dear friend died after suffering the hell of pancreatic cancer. Because I had worked hard last year through the “Beginning Grief” lessons, I thought I was prepared. Appreciating the power of tears, I’d cried many times through […]
What’s Age Got to Do with It? (Thank you, Tina Turner)
In 1984, Tina Turner celebrated one of the biggest comebacks in music history. She hit the stage at 44 with her “Private Dancer” tour, and she didn’t just come back—she soared. She became the queen of rock—as a grandmother. Forty-four doesn’t sound that old to me anymore, but in those days, rock n’ roll was a […]
When stuff doesn’t make sense
Sometimes, what I expect to make sense doesn’t. And what feels a little crazy might make most sense of all. As a meaning-seeker and story-creator, I search for narratives that give meaning and hope to what I see happening. But the world doesn’t always cooperate, and the senseless suffering bewilders me. What doesn’t make sense […]
Changing at the Speed of Slow
Question to a rancher: What’s the fastest way to move cattle? Rancher: Slowly On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, I thought about a lesson I learned from my friend John when he toured my garden. “You white people think change has to happen fast.” (He was being nice about it.) “But that’s a sign of […]
Set Up Your Day With Morning Rituals and Routines
In these tumultuous times, as I wrote about last week, morning rituals and routines set the direction for our days. They offer a base of calm stability from which to travel into our work and to-dos. Plus, they’re fun to design. For years, I’ve been interested in the rituals and routines that famous artists and writers have […]
Fasten your seat belt—it’s 2024!
“Live with skillful nonchalance and ceaseless concern.”~ Prajnaparamita Sutra ~ Fasten your seat belt, it’s 2024 and we’re in for a wild ride. And the best time to prepare is before the storm hits. I’m not the only one thinking we’re in for some turbulence. Just check with your favorite pundit, astrologer, social-political analyst, or geo-physicist. […]
The exquisitely beautiful and difficult
“To me, this is so much of life: holding the really beautiful things and the profoundly hard things in the same palm.” —Suleika Jaouad I just finished watching the new Netflix documentary, American Symphony, featuring two of my heroes, writer Suleika Jaoud and her musician husband, Jon Batiste. They exemplify living in the both/and of […]
