A Mindful Life

I just returned from my first sesshin at Hazy Moon Zen Center. It was fruitful. I’m tired and glad to be home. All that I experienced is settling, so I hesitate to write extensively about it. Here are some brief reflections. The first one is from my drive down, when I stopped at San Luis [...]

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.

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” –A.A. Milne What do you do on a restless Monday afternoon? You drive to Chesbro Reservoir to throw sticks and leaves in [...]

We live in a world where volcanoes have feet and personalities, mold grows in families and the members have names, and the Crab Nebula — where Claire wants to go — is also named Lily and is very friendly. Did you know that there are blue volcanoes that produce blue lava, and that blue lava [...]

We’ve been busy climbing and splashing and creating! Claire had a total of three weeks of swimming lessons. She is still shy about getting her face in the water and going under water, but she had a blast with her teachers. She very specifically insisted on lady teachers “because they are more gentle.” (She had [...]

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea. – e.e. cummings Headed out to the beach: Getting cozy in the sand (she also made sand angels): Barely able to stay still for a photo-op with Mommy: Racing the waves: The sky was gray but [...]

We’ve been busy lately. There have been little-girl sleepovers, outings to the park, and a field trip to pick strawberries. So, without further ado, let me show you the results of our latest outing. We start at this and this: We picked nine pounds of strawberries! And proceed to this and this: A sticky, boiling [...]

There’s an ice cream truck that rolls through our neighborhood at a speed that makes it impossible to catch if we’re inside or the back yard. We’ve pretty much given up on it. There’s a man who walks through our neighborhood with a cart and a bell, whom we usually can reach in time. But [...]

My husband’s gift to me today, a “Fjellheim” Japanese Maple! I’ve named it Gaia — mother. We bought it locally, and I’m so happy with it! From this: To this: We’ve got much more planting to do, but first we needed to position the tree. This is the north side of the house, and most [...]