A Mindful Life

Remember: There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. –Charles Morgan When you look into a child’s eyes, think of this. And when you look into an adult’s eyes, imagine the child within. Now go to a mirror and look at yourself. That quote applies to you, too. Who loves you? [...]

Writers would have it that heroes and good characters are less interesting than villains and pests because virtue is boring. I’ll agree that that’s often true in stories, or if you’re Dickens, and it may be that this chapter is doomed to fall short of rousing your passionate interest. But in real life, I have [...]

We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside. But one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin [...]

My friend Tiffany sent a url to an up-and-coming site. I visited, and an issue regarding censorship caught my attention. From the site: PBS has announced that it will censor two HBO movies in order to avoid the FCCÂ’s wrath, according to a report in Variety. Sex scenes? Nope. Get a load of this. The [...]

I have never told this story to anyone, this little story that, years ago, was silently sworn to secrecy. The pact stemmed from unbearable guilt, and I’m sharing the tale in innocence. Siona tells of how innocence becomes wisdom.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. –Madame Marie Curie

So faithfully and patiently, as eons pass she keeps a vigil. “Lady and her Basket” by Eva Baiza ©2003 / ephotograph

My friend Dave wrote about Bede beads, a form of prayer beads rooted in his practice of Asatru. He introduces the topic by writing: Prayer beads were devised to help people to keep track of repetitive devotions. They enabled one to pray while doing routine jobs and between activities. In the very earliest times, prayers [...]

Surprisingly, we were able to finish our lunch before disaster struck, before Izzie noticed that I had handed Leta one of her toys, before Izzie could DASH across the room with the speed of a cheetah and yank the toy from LetaÂ’s unsuspecting grip. Thus commenced the Silent Scream of Death, the scream so high [...]

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live. –Pema Chodron