Life is living itself through us. In all our best and worst moments. — I feel like I’m disappearing into an old boring woman. Like I’m indistinguishable now from every other old bag with jiggly jowls in her late sixties. It’s very depressing. And then I remember my Buddhist practice. I remember that we contemplate death, the impermanence of life. And I have no…

“Happy” doesn’t cut it. — This past weekend, I texted my three grown children (all in their forties) the following words: To my kids re Mother’s Day: I always feel weird when Mother’s Day comes around. This natural connection is always spun into an obligatory, commercial nightmare and I hate the way it feels. So…

A conversation I had with my selves during meditation. — NICE ME SPEAKS: While I was sitting this morning, an image came to me of everyone carrying the light of awareness. Everyone. With many of them, the light was tiny and dim, but it made me want to approach them gently and blow onto their flickering, like you would a desperately…

Where do you find injustice? What do you feel about it? — I’m working through the Natalie Goldberg deck of writing subjects. Each card in this world-renowned author and zen teacher’s Deck contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie’s honest, heartfelt urgency. “This is my wish for you:” she says. “[T]hat you…

From unending overwhelm to the quiet realm of “Done.” — All my life I’ve had problems with distraction, forgetting, losing stuff, getting the right time joined with the right date so I show up at 2pm on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Creatives can often fall into that trouble, so I always blamed it on my singer/songwriter nature. [Insert here long…

“You’ve finally eked out space to write…but there’s nothing you feel like writing about. Don’t pop up or pull a different card. Sit there for ten minutes, feeling your breath. Allow everything to be as it is. Just for now I’m asking you to be. Now write what you can accept with no judgment, no criticism.” — I’m working through the Natalie Goldberg deck of writing subjects. Each card in this world-renowned author and zen teacher’s Deck contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie’s honest, heartfelt urgency. “This is my wish for you:” she says. “[T]hat you…

Tell me what you forgot to say. — I’m working through the Natalie Goldberg deck of writing subjects. Each card in this world-renowned author and zen teacher’s Deck contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie’s honest, heartfelt urgency. “This is my wish for you:” she says. “[T]hat you…

“Write about the weather.” — I’m working through the Natalie Goldberg deck of writing subjects. Each card in this world-renowned author and zen teacher’s Deck contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie’s honest, heartfelt urgency. “This is my wish for you:” she says. “[T]hat you…

“Tell me about a favorite café, diner, luncheonette (do they use that word anymore?), coffee shop.” — I’m working through the Natalie Goldberg deck of writing subjects. Each card in this world-renowned author and zen teacher’s Deck contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie’s honest, heartfelt urgency. “This is my wish for you:” she says. “[T]hat you…