Reading Archives (2023)
A Turtle's Silver Bead Of Quietude
Gayle Boss
The day is bright and warm for December, but the logs in the marsh pond are bare. Spring to summer into early fall they served, on sunny days, as spa to a dozen or so painted turtles. I would see ...
The Grand Predicament
Nic Askew
A fear of not belonging drives much of what we do and how we are. Unknowingly it can define the experience of a life. Most of us live with an underlying sense that we are not yet enough. And ...
Integrity Is A Quality Of Being
Pierre Pradervand
Integrity is a quality of being. It means holding on at all times to your highest sense of truth and your own vision, whatever the cost may be. It consists in resonating with the most intimate fiber o...
I Have What You Need
Sharon Salzberg
In the old city section of Jerusalem, there is a wonderful open-stall marketplace. It is a place teeming with life—a deluge of sights and sounds and goods for sale. When I was teaching in Israel...
Presence Of Things Beyond Flesh
Drew Lanham
Lecturing has always come easily to me. Backed by the technical, the theoretical, a few supporting slides, and a captive audience of college students or peers, I've given hundreds of presentations...
Being Nice Isn't The Same As Being Kind
Donna Cameron
Kind people go beyond what's expected of them. They go beyond the easy response to offer the best of who they are. They do it without expectation of something in return. They do it because of who ...
The Cauldron Of Time
James O'dea
We who live and breathe in a body see the Creator’s signature as living gold: the gold of a magnificent sunlight splashed on the active rivers of our hearts’ generosity, pouring molten ...
Reclaim Your Chicken
Jon Bernie
Being does not require thought. Be fully attentive, gently attentive. Trust the natural ease of awareness. Make no effort. No trying, no doing, no defensiveness. Just gazing and seeing without resista...
Welcoming The Stranger
Wakanyi Hoffman
My husband, children, and I have lived in 7 countries for the last decade and a half. We have always been the strangers knocking on new neighbors' doors while simultaneously communing with the str...
An Ode To Low Expectations
James Parker
o there i was, staring at my mug of tea. It was 1993. I was sitting over a plate of eggs in the New Piccadilly Café in Soho, London. Things were not going well. As a man, as a person, as a u...
What Exactly Is Love?
J. Krishnamurti
Fear is not love, dependence is not love, jealousy is not love, possessiveness and domination are not love, responsibility and duty are not love, self-pity is not love, the agony of not being loved is...
Look Around In Wonder
David Griswold
Look around, look around, Look around in wonder, Trace the thunderous cloud above That feeds the river under. Look above and look below And look at last within, You'll see a river running th...