The first night is the hardest.
The First Night The worst thing about death must be the first night. —Juan Ramón Jiménez Before I opened you, Jiménez, it never occurred to me that day and night would continue to circle each other in the ring of death, but now you have me wondering if there …
I am waiting for someone I love, to die.
I am waiting for someone I love, to die. It is an extraordinarily difficult liminal space in which to be living these last weeks, in part because it takes place in the context of life going on – my cardiac rehab has begun, Felix is deciding to go back to …
poetry wednesday : we thought fingers in dirt meant it was our dirt.
The Tradition Jericho Brown Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium. We thought Fingers in dirt meant it was our dirt, learning Names in heat, in elements classical Philosophers said could change us. Star Gazer. Foxglove. Summer seemed to bloom against the will Of the sun, which news reports claimed flamed hotter On this …
Change your verbs, change your life : the -ing matters.
Tolerating, maintaining, doubting, arguing, hating. Embracing, nurturing, believing, inquiring, loving. In which of these realities would you rather live? Which one feels best in your body? When we change our verbs, we significantly change our lives. I’ve known this for a long time, and have written books about it, and …
How do you cry for a life not fully lived?
My mother died “unexpectedly” on December 21st last year. I say “unexpectedly” in quotation marks because honestly she had been wanting to die or trying to die, or at the very least had been trying to be sick enough to die, but then survive, for my whole life. I haven’t …
Thinking Thursday : Your brain has ruts. Make them ruts you like.
MIND If male scientists (or presidential candidates) were written about like female scientists. Ain’t that the truth. Welcome to the neuroscience of happiness: “…in the last 20 years, the scientific understanding of the brain has literally doubled. And that has given us much more clarity about the linkages between the mind …
You are a bird. Your wings are compassion and wisdom.
I was naked under the sheet, warmed by the heater at the end of the table. The sheets in other places like hotels, and even here, always seem nicer, thicker, more in charge of themselves, than my sheets. It’s almost as if other sheets know something that mine just …
sunday sounds : changing the world by changing me.
C.W.C.M EP by Jonathan Santos I met Santos last Fall at a meeting in Asheville where he riffed on his guitar and sang a most beautiful song. Listen, listen.
Strong Offer Friday: throwing ideas up in the air like pizza dough, and watching them twirl
As I recover and reprioritize and reclaim and rediscover and reorient, I am making strong offers into the world, and I invite you to participate in any that align with your own path: 1. The Art of Activism: Hard Conversations – Intro to Racism (Starts March 8) Over 3000 people have …
Sven takes me to this bridge in every season : where’s your bridge?
It came from Sweden. An 11-second video in an email from someone I did not know, and have never met even still, these eight years later. At first, I was struck by the sounds of the music, from the French film, “Les Choristes,” and the journey across a beautiful bridge. …
