A Mindful Life

Denny’s entry today offers a gorgeous close-up of gardenia blossoms. They look velvety and creamy. I can almost feel their texture on my skin. And the scent! Imagine lying on a bed of petals, with a blanket of them covering you in a soft drift. I would savor the caress [...]

Kurt Brobeck of The Coffee Sutras writes inspired entries he dubs “morning verses.” This one struck me as especially eloquent.

Yesterday I felt discouraged.
It hangs over me this morning, as well.
I tell myself chop wood, carry water.
But the woods grow thicker.
The water is over my head.
I have only these old bones
to hack and paddle, [...]

This is particularly lovely to me, and rings true.
But it’s not the same, a friendship of correspondence, a friendship of words. Once you’ve walked alone together, in silence, with a dear, true friend, there’s so much more to say than words can capture. Open mouth, already a mistake. Sometimes only shared footsteps and sun-drenched silence [...]

There are four different explanations of the word spirit. One meaning is essence. The second meaning of spirit is what is understood by those who call the soul spirit when it has left the body on earth and has passed to the other side. The third meaning is that of the soul and mind working [...]

I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
–Emily Bronte

Thoughtful woman, her
gaze fixed on another realm
embraced in sadness.

Dave Rentauskas ©2003 / ephotograph

Since last Thursday, my personal life is topsy-turvy, with many heavy questions and choices pressing in and refusing to give way. Life can be such a challenge when one is walking the path with someone, trying to negotiate the turns. Work, love, progeny… We live in a world of innumerable choices, [...]

I remember one evening when Ambivalence and I sat down to enjoy a nice dinner on the porch. The phone rang, and he jumped out of his chair to answer it. When he came back to join me at the table, the soup was cold, and his mind was preoccupied with programming details. [...]

One of my favorite therapists and writers is Irvin Yalom, a man of great insight who tells captivating stories. I’ve read nearly all of his books, one of which briefly discusses the aspects of existential psychology. He wrote quite a tome dealing with it in great detail, but I’ll be quoting from the [...]

All that is constructed is subject to destruction; all that is composed must be decomposed; all that is formed must be destroyed; that which has birth has death. But all this belongs to matter: the spirit that is absorbed by this formation of matter or by its mechanism lives, for spirit cannot die. What we [...]