Happy New Year! I hope that all of you enjoyed your holiday, and got at least a little extra time off and rest. I enjoyed having my kids at home, and hanging around the house more. I also had the opportunity to watch a few movies, and one that I particularly enjoyed was Despicable Me. It was a hilarious animated movie about a self-satisfied villain who adopts three adorable little girls...
Read MoreLast week, several days before our Thanksgiving feast, I happened to be in a local store, and was surprised to see a lot of Christmas decorations and displays. Well, I wasn't completely surprised, having watched this trend toward seasonal overlap growing over the last few years. What was surprising, though was that the Christmas displays helped illuminate some teachings I heard from Rod Stryker, Cyndi Lee, and Sean Johnson...
Read MoreCan you believe that it is already November? The fall seems to be going so quickly, and Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away. Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite holidays for many years, especially when we traveled to Michigan to enjoy Thanksgiving with family. I think that one of the reasons I liked it so much was that all we did was arrive and enjoy...
Read MoreOne of the joys of having older children is that we learn so much from them. This summer, one of my daughters read an inspiring book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and recommended that I read it also. Reading that book started me on a journey toward a deeper understanding of some of the most painful and difficult issues we face today, including the sex trafficking of young women around the world...
Read MoreI hope that you had a very relaxing summer! I had the pure joy of visiting the Caribbean, seeing family, and going on retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. In my last e-news, I wrote about whether or not it's best to always share our suffering, or if it's more productive to share only our joys. So it's funny because this month I have been meditating on perceptions. And perhaps underneath the question about what to share with others is how we interpret our experiences...
Read MoreThis past week I received an unexpected letter from an old friend of my mom's. My mom passed away, quite unexpectedly, about 5 years ago at the young age of 71. My mom, Sally, was a vibrant, energetic, and positive person, who did a whole lot for a lot of people, and was well-loved by many. My mom's friend described some of my mom's wonderful qualities - always making the best of every situation, her enormous capacity to care for others, the importance of her family...
Read MoreIn June, I had the rare and humbling opportunity to speak on a panel with three very distinguished Buddhists and peace activists: Colman McCarthy, Hugh Byrne, and Bill Aiken. The panel was part of the first annual BuddhaFest, and there were over 100 people in attendance. I agreed to speak on the panel because a friend of mine recommended me, I was in a good mood when they asked, and I wanted to encourage myself to move out of my comfort zone...
Read MoreSo I have been in a birthday mode lately. In addition to eating good food and cake, there is a tradition of offering good wishes to the birthday celebrant. We say things like: I wish you a happy birthday, I wish you another year of health, or I wish you a relaxing day. And I was thinking about how birthday wishes are a lot like metta, or loving-kindness phrases. Some of the phrases we use for practicing metta are: May you be happy, May you be healthy, and May you live with ease...
Read MoreThis morning when our contractor arrived at our house, it made me cry. And it wasn't simply the cost of renovation making me sad. It was my son's move from his old room to a new one that did it. You wouldn't think such a small thing would be so triggering. Standing in my son's room at 7 am this morning, I looked around at all of the stuff that he was letting go--the cowboy rug and cowboy boots, the Goosebumps books...
Read MoreThis morning I saw white crocuses coming up in my neighbor's yard. For me, crocuses are the harbinger of spring, regardless of whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not. When I see their tiny delicate flowers hanging on even more delicate stems, I have faith that the warm weather is on its way, even as I step through mounds of dirty snow.
Read More
Recently I have been paying more attention to my belly. Not just doing plank pose to try to firm it up, but also practicing softening it.
Read More
Yesterday I was eating a mango at my kitchen table. It was really delicious. One of my teenage daughters, who especially loves mangos, was sitting in the living room studying for final exams.
Read More