We think it all depends on us. But what if the trout allows itself to be caught because this is its time? What if the enchanted part of the fork in the road breathes warmly on your neck because it needs the grounding of your steps? What if the dream you so passionately commit to dove from the Heavens into your mind as you slept, needing a pot to grow in? What if the words of love are tired of being... Read more

After the bomb went off, after parts of the building fell about her, once everything was still, she lifted her broken body from the rubble, gasping for air. This is how it is with sudden explosions. Like when your parents broke lamps and tables before leaving, and after parts of your home fell about you, you stared through the broken window, not sure where to go. This is how I dusted off the debris of almost dying to cough my... Read more

I found my grandmother’s steamship ticket to this country from 1904 in the back of her dresser. And when my father died, there was a heavy pair of pliers in his old box of tools in the basement. These are remembrances of what is needed to leave and what is needed to stay. Just what will you find of mine and what will it remind you of? I leave these odd voicings along the way with no intent other than... Read more

Always invite Death to your table but never let him choose the meal. Give him plenty of wine. He only pretends to keep secrets. Be sure to listen past the drama. He will try to make it all about you. But once it gets late and he stops spinning tales, once everyone leaves, he will grow quiet as a lake under the stars. Look him in the eye then and he will mirror the Mysteries of Life. Be kind to... Read more

It can’t be helped. Patterns cover the mind, like moss that blankets the floor of the forest. The way things were or the way we’d like them to be overlay what it means to be alive. And so, we have to put our face in the sun and rake our way through what keeps covering our soul: be it someone else’s dream for us or our fear of never being enough. The secret of repair that monks and tired warriors... Read more

When you slowly lift your cup, feel the weight of all you’ve gathered from your time on Earth, bring it to your lip and feel the milk you were given as a child, feel the first time you cupped water from a stream, feel the love you drank from that healed you of all that was tangled in your story, feel the warmth you fed your mother or father when they were dying, even feel the snow your dog licks... Read more

Yearning to be, we enter a lifelong process. We follow a thread of connection that reveals itself as a necessary art of being. The unexpected utterance that comes from honest living then helps us lift the veils we encounter. And so, the life of expression helps us keep the world together. This is the purpose of our will, to join the one conversation we all are born to. By seeing one thing in another, we release the Divine Nature in... Read more

No matter what anyone tells you, opinions are shields and questions are windows. And difficulty is there to have us break the crust of bread in half, not hide it. And in the bright space opened by lightning, we can ask each other, “What’s it like to be here? What’s it like to be you?”   A Question to Walk With: In conversation with a friend or trusted loved one, inquiry in all sincerity, asking each other, “What’s it like... Read more

Like a photographer of the invisible, I have spent my life trying to develop images in the dark room of my heart. Trying to give a face to the wind, to give a name to the light, to hold the irrepressible feel of Oneness until it reveals its intricate web of connection. Of course, this is impossible. But this has been my joy: to squeeze water out of clouds to offer you a cup.   A Question to Walk With:... Read more

Remember when we sat in your study by the window, wondering why life is so hard. And just then, the sun, without effort, rushed its way through the clouds across our faces. And the sudden light spilled across all the open books we had around us. Today, I think of you and how a toe in the water is worth all the descriptions of water. And a moment of love is worth all the windows it passes through.   A... Read more