The Courage to Be Mortal
Five years ago today, my friend Laurie Foley died. For the last five months of her life, we talked to each other a lot. I wasn’t feeling well myself and mostly tried to sleep on a couch in my office so I wouldn’t disturb John, and she was in the …
Know the point of your life
“Sheridan’s gifts as a teacher were as rare as the purity of his passion. Wherein did these gifts lie? In his brilliance? Yes. In his mastery of his subject? Of course. In his capacity for lucid, concrete, and vivid explanation? Again, yes. But there is another factor, one whose roots …
Strong Offer Friday: how to work and learn with me now
I explore ideas, alone and in community. I open space for learning communities to form and flourish. I challenge myself to create safe spaces where learning can deepen. I write, I teach, I create retreats, and offer them to the world. On Strong Offer Fridays, I’ll highlight what’s coming up …
Come, let’s ride brightly painted inner tubes, you and I
If you have watched TV commercials for the new teeniny microscopic MacBook Air, perhaps you will recognize this song by Yael Naim. Come, let’s ride brightly painted inner tubes, play cymbals in a field of sunflowers, sing with a gorgeous Israeli-French accent, and realize that there is a whole big …
It takes so little…
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. – T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" It really takes so very little to amuse me. Yesterday, I got an email from a favorite bookstore in town: "we’d like to name a drink after you." Lest we get …
37days book (“Life is a Verb”) coming this fall from Globe Pequot Press
Maverick writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman once wrote that "life is a verb." It is a sentiment echoed by the likes of Buckminster Fuller and Kevin Kelly. And so it is. Life takes action, not wishful thinking. It takes mindfulness and intention. It takes slowing down and saying yes and being …
N is for now
“Nothing is worth more than this day.” –Goethe In 2008, I am going to be here now. When you unpeel it, 37days is all about now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one day. I want, instead, to live …
Becoming Larger Than Our Skin Allows
And no, that title isn’t a reference to overeating. In the U.S., today is Thanksgiving Day (and my friend Karrie Manson’s birthday, so a shout out to her for being so powerful that the nation stops when she ages). This year, I’m not spending Thanksgiving at a long table full …
Let go of the monkey bar
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu Sometimes taking flight takes letting go. Letting go takes faith. Faith takes letting go. It all requires wings. And so it goes. As Kierkegaard has said, “Without risk there is no faith, and …
Always carry a pencil
“What writing is all about is what happens on the page between the reader and the page…What I want is a collaboration, really, with the reader on the page where the reader is also making an effort, is putting something of himself into it in the way of understanding, in …
