My Writing

Sometimes I feel like I am starting my slow slide toward Death.  Actually, I picture it like a Slip and Slide that my kids used to love at a Water Park. Its super fun until it's not. After hours of gleeful shouts and flops, they got tired and cold. Is it weird to think of death that way?  "My loved ones cannot save me. Our loved ones cannot keep us from death; there is no delaying its advent. Holding this thought in mind, I exercise non-grasping." This is the Seventh Contempl

When my spirit becomes homeless, I want it to fly away and achieve true freedom, untethered, unadorned, full of light. Who but Rilke could capture this flight so magnificently? "You, my own deep soul, trust me, I will not betray you. My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing. What mystery breaks over me now? In its shadow I come into life. For the first time I am alone with you – you, my power to feel." by Reiner Maria Rilke, translated by Joanna Macy

2025 has been quite a year, right?!  I spent time in fear, in rage, in despair, in hopelessness, and in historical review of ultra-right wing trends. I learned that I needed more than to white knuckle it. A few months in, I began to practice how to relax into the gunk and found two very important gifts. One is joy and the other hope. I am not letting go of hope (joy and hope combined)! I am holding on tightly! They are essential ingredients for what we are cooking! They will

Let's end the new year by anointing ourselves! Let's purify and honor making it through 2025! All you need is one bottle of essential oils- frankincense or myrrh or lavendar or orange, or even oregano or rosemary oils. And a few minutes. Sit in silence for a few minutes, feel yourself center, and then focus your mind on sensing where you need to release energy. You may want to release that energy which is stuck or honor the parts of your being that have been giving you streng

As we end 2025, its useful to look back at the year in review and notice how we fared as evolving beings of light, with an abbreviated version of the five hindrances. The five hindrances can be understood as very common, negative mind sets which hinder us on the spiritual path, as per Buddhist philosophy: The first hindrance is Desire. "Everything will be OK when I get what I want." Is that really true? The second hindrance is Ill Will or Aversion. "I don't want this. I don't