“Love. Buddha nature. Courage. These are code words for things we don’t know in our minds, but any of us could experience them. These are words that point to what life really is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment.” -Pema Chodron When your back is… Continue reading When Life Has Nailed You
Tag: poetry
What Tiresias Knew
We are visual creatures. Much of our brain is devoted to processing visual information. Unfortunately, this creates a kind of bias towards the visible. (Ironically, our penchant for the visible gives us a blindspot for the hidden.) With the COVID-19 devastating our world currently, it strikes me we are beginning to appreciate the power of… Continue reading What Tiresias Knew
Good Dog…
Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and his friends died yesterday. I’m struck with how someone at the height of their promise and possibility with every advantage can suddenly be taken like that. It takes one moment, one phone, one word for life to change suddenly and there’s no going back. If I’m honest part of my… Continue reading Good Dog…
The Next Best Time
This poem came from seeing a quote my friend Liz Belz-Templeman posted from Richard Powers Pulitzer winning novel The Overstory: “When is the best time to plant a tree?Twenty years ago. When is the next best time? Now.” It struck me this isn’t just true of planting trees but really anything important in our lives that take… Continue reading The Next Best Time
Atopos: When the Path Gives Out
When I first moved to Oregon I discovered hiking in the Pacific Northwest wasn’t quite like the hiking I had done in Texas or along the AT in New Jersey. The guidebooks say things like some places are best June through August…they don’t say “can kill you” in March. On my first really big trip… Continue reading Atopos: When the Path Gives Out