A Mindful Life

I sent the following in a note to a friend. Not that she can fix it, but she’s empathetic, and that will have to do for comfort.
Lately I feel I am a Riedel wine glass, and the world is a soprano singing a note that is nearly unbearable.
I want, somehow, to be removed from it, [...]

Sometimes I’m that one fish hanging out at the edge, trying to find a way in.
Sometimes I’m part of the crowd caught up in the energy of movement.
Sometimes I’m the shark in the distance, evaluating possibilities to devour.
And sometimes I’m just a bit of seaweed floating along.

This video by RadioLab moved me deeply. If you have four minutes to spare, do watch it.

And if the video doesn’t work, click this link to see it.

How realistic is the expectation that an almost-2 child should self-amuse often and long? I know some mothers whose children of the same age will play for 30-60 minutes by themselves. I sometimes worry that I “play too much” with Claire. I do try to take little breaks to do chores, read, or blog, but [...]

I’ve been sitting daily for 20 minutes, and I’m amazed how frenetic my thoughts are. They are faster and more erratic than any toddler. I sit, eyes half open, aware of the breath in my nostrils and counting, and all the while it sounds like a cocktail party in my head:
Boy, I can’t believe SHE [...]

Life is prodding me to stay present and not borrow trouble in the future. This is a discipline, one that requires traipsing after my thoughts like I do after my toddler.
The microwave broke again, despite our being careful not to use the front burner to cook steamy things (which apparently caused the circuits to [...]

After nap, I went out with Claire to run an errand, and I found myself driving past the Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale. I’d heard of them a couple years ago but never pursued actually locating the center. I’d also been on a mailing list for another Zen center in Mountain View, but I [...]

Everything flows from your own heart.
–Fa-Yen