What all great healers know …

I’m being schooled on healing … on what it is and what it is not. It’s been an eye-popping ride. So much that we do — the intent for a result — the idea of a healer and healed — the belief in disease and health — the need for improvement in that which is …

We Didn’t Listen

I don’t like the God of Abraham, the God of War, of punishment, of hell and damnation, of violence and retribution, and a seemingly abiding need to be loved, the God who split himself into thirds to cause trouble, or sent deliberately mixed messages to the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, initiating covenants in …

Sitting on My Tombstone

If I could see everything that is going to happen in my life, would I try to change anything? It seems like I might want to leave the good stuff alone and put some effort into changing the not so good, doesn’t it? Of course, that assumes I have the ability to do something different …

Are You Waiting for the End of the World?

“Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 Is that true? Are we waiting, perhaps even hoping, silently, ever so silently that we don’t even let ourselves in on our little secret? Do we desperately struggle to stay alive, while hoping that our world …

Cracking Open

When your heart is breaking it feels like the pieces will never fit together again. They won’t, not in the same way. That’s is an unavoidable consequence of life. The breaking always leaves cracks, spaces where the light of loss pours itself into the world and what a gift that is!  You don’t let the …

Life Itself

It was a glorious walk this morning, earlier than normal. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, lighting the maple trees, the firs and cedars in a most spectacular display, mystically splashing their infinite shades of green against the backdrop of shadow and light. As I walked I found myself dipped in awe, in …

This Dark Beauty

The idea of death is for the living. Death has no meaning for the one no longer in form. Death is felt by the ones left behind, or it is glossed over with polite triteness, watchful escapism: It’s okay, she’s gone to a better place, he is flying with the angels, they’ve gone home to …

Maybe There is No Definition and No Way

Real or not real? That is the question, and it seems to be much discussed these days. What is enlightenment? Listen to me … this is what it is. No … it’s not that, it’s this. If we can’t even agree on a definition of what it is, how in the world would we ever …

Don’t Forget to Celebrate

Have you noticed? Whenever someone dies, someone important to the freedom days of our youth, someone who meant something to us along the pathway of our grand unfolding, someone whose life was simply tangled up with our own, we mourn. It doesn’t seem to matter if that person was enduing immense pain, taken out in …

How Would You Know — It Hasn’t Happened Yet

Boy, if that happened to me, I’d … I remember saying that. If I was diagnosed with cancer, I wouldn’t go through all that. I’d rather die. I said that after my husband died, after watching him fight the good fight for five years. According to medical science he was a survivor. He’d made it …

The Promise

When Kenny was ill, we had a joke. He used to say, “Where would I go? There’s only here. There’s only now.” I’d look at him, and his precocious grin, and smile back.

Stay and Play, or Run

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn’t one.” ― Wei Wu Wei   You want to be happy, to not feel foolish, to feel included and loved. It is only natural to feel that way. What isn’t organic is not feeling what …

Death Throes

Death is the material world’s boogey man and aging signals its approach. It’s not taken too seriously when you are your twenties unless you have illness struggles, but once you cross the threshold of the thirties the fear begins amping up. This is the sales pitch of cosmetics, plastic surgery, and most everything on the …

You Already Know

I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear. You already know it, but many of you have yet to fully accept it. Life isn’t fair. It will never be all roses and no thorns. Some people will appear to win in spite of seeming unworthy of any good fortune. Others will appear …

Authority Figures

What do you suppose lies within us that grants authority to an other and consciously or not, bestows power, often power over us, someone whose words make us suspect trust fear they can see our future, someone who says something, perhaps innocently, and our mind is off to the races, but not before installing them …