“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I saw a woman singing while pregnant and imagined how the rhythms of song affected the life forming within her; imagined the song drawing her unborn child’s soul closer…
I tried so hard to please that I never realized no one is watching. I imagined, like everyone else at school, that my parents were sitting just out of view like those quiet doctors behind clean mirrors, watching and reprimanding my every move. As I reached adulthood, the habit continued.…
“Where love is deep much can be accomplished.” Shinichi Suzuki Despite our culture’s over-emphasis on doing, there is a rightful place and time to get things done. In truth, there is very little we can not do. Much of the time we just lack either the ability to envision the dream built…
“Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind singing in your veins.” John Welwood When starting out, I wanted so badly to become a poet that I held it in view like some hill I needed to climb to see from. But getting to the…
Live, I say, live your worries through and your spirit will wake from its fever, and you will want others like soup. During my struggle with cancer, the endless medical gauntlet of going through procedures and tests and then waiting for the results gave me a lot of practice in…
Suffering makes an instrument of each of us, so that standing naked, holes and all, the unseen vitalities can be heard through our simplified lives. Sometimes we can’t get what we want. While this can be disappointing and painful, it is only devastating if we stop there.The world thrives on endless…
“Please remember, it is what you are that heals, not what you know.” Carl Jung This is very difficult to remember. I struggle with it daily. Even when I understand this enough to open my heart like a sponge to the day, someone I love comes along in pain and…
“Maybe that’s why I want to touch people so often—it’s only another way of talking.” Georgia O’Keefe I was aching and vulnerable, feeling far from home, when, through the harsh shore wind, I saw a large rock surrounded by the rough churned-up sea. The rock was covered with all kinds…
“We are here to live out loud.” Emile Zola Early on, we know enough to cry and sound our way into the world; this is the primary purpose of voicing ourselves. Whatever comes out becomes a lifeline, a vein of expression by which we affirm, again and again, that we…
Random is the instant a horse at full speed has all four hooves off the ground. This is the original meaning of the word. It refers to the mystery of unbridled passion, to the lift that results from total immersion and surrender. In our age, however, random means without design,…
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