Meditations for the Heart, Mind, and Spirit

Heaven and hell are aspects of lived relationships, and both necessary, if we desire a life of depth, meaning, and complexity. Not all do. Nor should they. Abundance comes at a cost. An abundant life is one willing to say yes more than no to whatever manifests in our day, and to embrace more than avoid the implications of these manifestations. Heartbreak (through love and loss). Despondency (through disillusionment). Exuberance (through vulnerability). Buoyancy (through belon

I experience deeper kinship with my cat than I do with most humans. When I look into his eyes, and he mine, there is beholding, beyond what words can convey. He loves touch, as do I. He treasures rest and nourishment, as do I. He values silence and solitude, as do I. He also longs for connection and play, as do I. We are animals, he and I, and all of us sentient beings, and it strikes me that we are more similar than dissimilar, with words and their importance greatly exagger

Don’t try to encourage others. For all you know, some may need to go down first before they are ready to be lifted up. Instead, be you. As simply and as gently as you can. Be you in this moment, in the context of your immediate relationships, amidst the details of your present surroundings, listening deeply, and learning carefully what is actually required of you, here and now. Allow yourself to be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love, as Rumi recommend

Human existence is nothing if not a matter of possession. We are possessed by a spirit of wanting, and it is this essential possession that drives us toward all other possessions. The possession of certain beliefs, to abate an unnerving sense of the uncertain. The possession of objects and things, to soothe a sense of emptiness that sometimes seems endless. We can be reticent to own it, ironically, but wanting is  what defines us most in our actual day-to-day experience as cr