A Mindful Life

Now the same acts drew up the ties between them, put them back together, as though shaping the world from scratch. As they worked, they put the sky in place above, the trees in the ground. They invented color and air and scent and gravity. Laughter and sadness. They discovered truth and lies and mock-lies [...]

When we’re young we have faith in what is seen, but when we’re old we know that what is seen is traced in air and built on water. –Maxwell Anderson, Winterset

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. –William Penn Dawn on Kala Point, Washington

Genuine prayer is an event in which man surpasses himself. Man hardly comprehends what is coming to pass. Its beginning lies on this side of the word, but the end lies beyond all words. What is happening is not always brought about by the power of man. At times all we do is to utter [...]

“When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there.” – Japanese Proverb

Today Claire asked to make Simba, from the Lion King. She hasn’t seen the movies but is obsessed with the songs, especially The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Hakuna Matata, and He Lives In You. She wanted to also make his father and an elephant friend. Thank goodness for paper plates, construction paper, glue and paint! Claire [...]

Amid cow patties flies pester eyes, nose, mouth, hide- ear pierced with numbers. There is only this moment, chewing cud, swishing tail. A small stone for today.

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky [...]

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. –Victor Hugo Updated 7/11 (because comments are closed and I didn’t want to take the time to figure out how that happened): Perhaps the quote makes more sense if it reads, “Life is the toast for which love is the honey.”

Lift your arm. Let it fall onto your leg. Simple? Is existence simple? Consider that there are two massive objects: the earth — the whole big round rock of it — and your relaxed arm. The reality of the earth’s gravitational pull can be experienced in the heavy fall of your arm. Drop your arm [...]