I am looking through the window toward our back porch and see a floating apparition. It is some sort of flower seed composed of gossamer filaments radiating from a central spire—similar to spokes on a bicycle wheel. It hovers effortlessly in the still air, buoyed by an unseen hand. Light reflects off the fine needle-like…Read more …
The practice of Tonglen, giving and receiving, can be a profound and liberating experience. We breathe in, gracefully acknowledging the suffering of all beings. Then we breathe out, offering light and love, visualizing that all suffering be eased. It is a simple practice—but not always so easy to accomplish. If we are actively helping to…Read more …
There are so many ways to become intimate with nature: walking barefoot, bending to smell a flower, dropping sweat on a steep trail, becoming absorbed in the view from atop a mountain, tasting a medicinal plant, feeling wind caress the face, and on and on … Today, I am gazing through a waterfall. The trail…Read more …
As of this writing there have been 250 mass shootings this year in the U.S. What in the world goes on in the mind of a mass shooter? If we think we would never do such a thing, we might want to look into our own minds and notice the anger hidden there. We need…Read more …
Purple sage (Salvia dorrii ) is a plant native to much of the western United States. It is not really a sage but a member of the mint family. I have come across this plant and its subspecies on many hikes throughout the West. I always feel uplifted by the beautiful purple blossoms and the…Read more …