A puppy can be trained to be a faithful and loving companion. So can your mind. Practitioners of meditation often use the term “monkey mind” to describe the untrained mind: a mind that grasps wildly and randomly at whatever passes through its consciousness; a mind that seizes greedily at every passing thought; a mind unaware […]
Enlightenment of the Middle Ages: Spiritual Lessons I Have Learned in Midlife
I turned fifty this past summer. Which means if I live to be one-hundred (which is an actual goal) I am squarely and undeniably smack dab in the middle of my life. Middle age has its petty annoyances. It also has its perks. I may not be able to see the dosage information on the […]
Be Different: Because in being different, we are all the same
During the month of December, I’ll be participating in a project called Reverb 10. Reverb 10 is “an open online initiative that encourages participants to reflect on this year and manifest what’s next. It’s an opportunity to retreat and consider the reverberations of your year past, and those that you’d like to create in the year ahead.” Each day […]
How To Be Responsible: Punctuate Your Life
The other day, James and I boarded an Airstream trailer parked at a curb in downtown Asheville. The trailer is traveling around the country interviewing regular folks like us, and collecting stories about “a-ha moments.” When our interview was over, the interviewer asked me to explain what an “a-ha moment” meant to me. This is […]
How to Be Wise: Time is like money, be careful where you invest it.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. – Annie Dillard Time is like currency. It’s a precious commodity in limited supply. So we need to be careful how we spend it. With money we try to be smart consumers. We work hard to earn it and we know […]
How To Be Compassionate: Use Your Imagination
I wish I knew What it’s like to be A splinter, a bee. A song, a sea. A tree, a shoe. A bird that’s new. I wish I knew What it’s like to be you. - By my daughter Tamar, at age 7 When I was a child, I experienced an awakening moment. My mother […]
How To Be Real: You don’t have to settle in Cynicsville
Imagine, if you will, two towns: Cynicsville and Pollyannatown. Two towns beset by troubles large and small. And yet the residents of these towns look at their troubles in decidedly different ways. The residents of Cynicsville feel they’ve seen it all. No matter what the turn of events – good or bad — they […]
How To Be The Person You Want To Be: Start with Your Eulogy
In Chapter 17 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom gets to do something that many of us (at least subconsciously) wish we could do. He gets to hear his own eulogy. He gets to witness how greatly he has touched the lives around him. His town, thinking him dead, is awash with grief and […]
How To Be Celebratory: The release of our new video, “Sticky Notes”
I saw this video in my head long before it made it’s premier on YouTube. The actors. The expressions. The movements. I knew just how it would unfold. Just how it would be paced. I wanted to make a short film that would illustrate what it means to have a “To Be List.” And with […]
How To Be Beautiful: Let your inner beauty speak through you
It’s very easy to get hung up on certain societal standards of beauty. Images on TV and in magazines drive us to go stare at ourselves in mirrors, where we silently castigate ourselves for our imperfections and curse our genes for producing noses that are too big, lips that are too thin, eyes that are […]
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