Author Archives: Musings

As long as we are alive, we feel fear. It is an intrinsic part of our makeup, as natural as a bitter cold winter day or the winds that rip branches off trees. If we resist it or push it aside, we miss a powerful opportunity for awakening. -Tara Brach I feel fear every day.Continue reading “Releasing into Fear”

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. -Helen Keller We’ve come to the end of another year, a time when many of us, determined to better ourselves, compile a long list of New Year’s Resolutions. VeryContinue reading “Happy New Year”

Whatever your difficulties—a devastated heart, financial loss, feeling assaulted by the conflicts around you, or a seemingly hopeless illness—you can always remember that you are free in every moment to set the compass of your heart to the highest intentions. In fact, the two things that you are always free to do—despite your circumstances—are toContinue reading “Loving kindness”

What would it be like to be completely committed to this present reality? Because, that’s actually what we are experiencing right now…If we want to improve a situation, we should go for that…but if we’ve already accepted things as they are, then any efforts toward improvement could…be experienced as play.” -Bruce Tift How can IContinue reading “Acceptance”

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending. -Thich Nhat Hahn To see beyond someone’s hurtful behavior to their true loving nature is the very essence of compassion. But,Continue reading “Compassion”

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot I’ve always loved these lines from T.S. Eliot’s poem, “Four Quartets”. I was an angst-filled teenager when I first read Eliot’s poem. At that time, theseContinue reading “Coming Home”

What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am? -Oriah Mountain Dreamer This week we celebrate Thanksgiving. This is a week when we gather together with friends and family. We share aContinue reading “Thanksgiving”

When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul! -Rabbi Harold Kushner What is your life filled with the desire to see? We go through life experiencing a series of highsContinue reading “Something Extraordinary!”

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves… Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls toContinue reading “Love What You Love”

You have to have a self in order to let go of a self. -Jack Engler Selflessness is often touted as the highest aspiration. We should think of others first. We should martyr ourselves, sacrifice ourselves. And while the true state of our existence is one of identification with the Divine, rather than with theContinue reading “The self”