Musings on
the Middle Path

Perhaps many in this forum can recall the “Communications Calendar” from the MBSR course in which participants write a few words each day for a week about their experiences of difficulties in ordinary communications. Then, in class, we explore ways that mindfulness...

Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time at the computer, working on projects that depend on the many amazing powers of modern technology. A week or so ago, after many hours of peering at words and images on the screen, I noticed my heart feeling hard and stiff, my...

During the cold winter months, our woodstove becomes the focal point of our daily rhythms. We stack and carry logs, feed the stove throughout the day, and frequently clean up debris from the kindling. Today, while sweeping, the taste of contentment visited my heart....

Recently, I spent some time in silent retreat and, as is often the case for me, came away with a phrase that encapsulates the theme life seemed to be teaching me there. “Always a choice; never in control,” are the words ringing in mind. Perhaps vignettes of a couple...

Years ago, a wise teacher shared with me that what she found herself most appreciating through her decades of mindfulness practice was the paradoxical nature of the human situation. At the time, this seemed rather obvious to me and not particularly helpful. A little...

Today I’d like to exhale long and offer you all a poem. It’s one that I wrote, which is the reason for that long out-breath. Sharing from the heart feels vulnerable, and breathing out helps me with that. I’ve been writing poems for years. I absolutely love writing...

One of the key tenets of Patanjali's yoga sutra is the notion of self-study. Together with devotion to what Chip Hartranft translates as “the ideal of pure awareness,” it forms the foundation from which practice grows. Recently, we've been exploring the topic in the...

As many of you know, each year over the past dozen years or so, I have spent a month or more in silent retreat. 2013 was the longest period, a hundred days, and this past autumn I had the good fortune to spend nearly seven weeks in the quiet. This might seem like a...

How To Do What's Really Important aka Put the Big Rocks in First This summer, my husband, Brett, and I did something we don't often do. We took a two-week vacation that involved flying to Arizona and camping at the Grand Canyon with some dear friends. As many of you...

A friend recently sent me a beautiful card with the phrase, "Change... the only constant" under a picture of ocean water washing over stones and sand on the seashore. Together, the image and the phrase shared so much. The words, a simple platitude, caused me to see...