A Mindful Life

Accept indeterminacy as a principle, and you see your life in a new light, as a series of seemingly unrelated jewel-like stories within a dazzling setting of change and transformation. Recognize that you don’t know where you stand, and you will begin to watch where you put your feet. That’s when the path appears. -John [...]

A short, brilliant day. Night draws around me, tucks me in. Ready for a long winter’s nap. No thinking. No mind. Just body, bed, and blanket.

About the spiritual training of young, my view is a bit of the same. How you behave in your home is their spiritual upbringing. I think we have to be careful with all forms of ideological indoctrination, and that is what spiritual training is in children: the imposition of a set of abstract beliefs and [...]

No Ordinary Life Drink some coffee light a candle Rain patters light a candle Cat purrs light a candle A child’s party light a candle Eat cake light a candle Buy groceries light a candle Fold laundry light a candle Clean the bathroom light a candle Pay bills light a candle Read books light a [...]

I protect my child as much as possible. Therefore, I have chosen not to tell her about yesterday’s tragedy. At age five, she simply does not need to know. What happened is incomprehensible to me, an adult; she would only personalize the information and worry for her own safety. I cannot make the world safe, [...]

November’s Art Every Day projects were a way to play and engage with a part of myself I hadn’t in a few years. So I want to keep momentum, and I’m playing along with Illustration Friday. Luxurious / 5″ x 7″ pencil on sketch paper

“Observe your own body. It breathes. You breathe when you are asleep, when you are no longer conscious of your own ideas of self-identity. Who, then, is breathing? The collection of information that you mistakenly think is you is not the protagonist in this drama called the breath. In fact, you are not breathing; breath [...]

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default [...]

Hoot and Holler / 8.5″ x 11″ pastel and mixed paper collage Like some winter animal the moon licks the salt of your hand, Yet still your hair foams violet as a lilac tree From which a small wood-owl calls. -Johannes Bobrowski This is the end of Art Every Day Month 2012. I really enjoyed [...]

Seashore / 2″ x 4″ ink on card stock The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless [...]