“A good story is one that says, at many different levels, ‘we’re both human beings, we’re in this crazy situation called life, that we don’t really understand. Can we put our heads together and confer about it a little bit at a very high, non-bullshitty level?’ Then, all kinds of magic can happen.” ~ George Saunders […]
Happy Birthday Nina Simone [& a Brief Blog Hiatus]
Happy birthday, Miss Simone. Though unrelated to the exquisite Miss Simone’s birthday… You may have noticed that things have been a little too quiet in this portal of late, a little too light on posts and short on prose. I had hoped to be sharing something of value for you now, something edifying, inspiring, healing too, and a […]
Pema Chödrön on Why to Meditate
We do not meditate in order to be comfortable. In other words, we don’t meditate in order to always, all the time, feel good. Meditation gives us the opportunity to have an open, compassionate attentiveness to whatever is going on. The meditative space is like the big sky— spacious, vast enough to accommodate anything that […]
Diane Ackerman on Truly Living Our Lives
“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat an unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours, […]
Frida Kahlo on Being Just as Strange as You
Henry Miller on Art, Creation & Change
Music | Happy Birthday Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong
“The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.” ~ Louis Armstrong In honour of Louis “Satchmo” “Pops” “Ambassador Satch” Armstrong’s 114th birthday today, instead of sharing a poem, here’s a little musical interlude for you […]
Tom Robbins on Writing and Making a Fool of Yourself
Poetry | Call Me by My True Names By Thich Nhat Hanh
Natalie Goldberg on Stepping Out Your Own Way & How Writing Frees Us
“Simply step out of the way and record your thoughts as they roll through you. Writing Practice spends the heart and mind, helps to keep us flexible so that rigid distinctions between apples and milk, tigers and celery disappear. Every minute we change. It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out […]