Writing and Driving and Life E. L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This passage from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird came to mind while driving with my 15 year old last night. We were talking about growing … Continue reading Like Driving a Car at Night
“…you can’t help respecting anyboy who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.” A.A. Milne (Rabbit speaking about Owl) What does count? Today I’m focusing on a phrase in the Tao te Ching I read this morning, the end of a stanza. “Do your work, then step back. The … Continue reading Spelling Tuesday
So there I was zooming down the neural pathways and superhighways of my brain and I remembered that I’d seen somewhere that the insides of our brains look remarkably like the vastness of the universe. Continue reading The Universe Inside
“The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.” ~ Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way Continue reading In Proportion, Always, to the Capacity for Delight
And it dawns on me. The lesson. These things happen sometimes when something someone says intrigues me so, that I want to ponder it, mull it over, hold it in my hand and carry it like a talisman until its wisdom breaks open for me. Continue reading In the Silence
It took work on my part to shed some layers of negativity and remember my somewhat bohemian wildness and happiness, my inner childishness, to allow myself to look silly in front of my kids. Continue reading They Became My Partners in Joy
In which I accidentally discover the Ridiculously Perfect Meditation Stance for a dork like me! Continue reading Monkey Brain and Geese Chatter
It’s Tao Tuesday – a fun little reminder to think these thoughts, to examine these principles, to engage the spirit and delve into this understanding, or non-understanding as the case may be. One day of the week, as originally instigated by Amy Putkonen over at Tao te Ching Daily. She has a whole list of every chapter and articles or responses to every one. I … Continue reading Thoughts on Thinking, the Empty Mind and Not-Doing
It’s Tao Tuesday! As always, I will refer you back to the original page, Tao te Ching Daily, and her series, Tao Tuesday. There, you will find rich discussion and articles from every chapter of the Tao, spanning I think a couple of years. I’m just starting over here, and relishing the discipline of looking at these brief words and finding the wisdom and beauty … Continue reading Easy, Now, Grasshopper!
Reflections on The Tao te Ching – Chapter 1: The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet … Continue reading Darkness within Darkness
First there was a quiet that was deafening. My heart was washed of all the years of torment and bitterness, in an afternoon. Just gone. Daily anger, frustration, strife, vexation. Poof. And what remained echoed in its shiny cleanness. For a couple of days, that roared in my head, or maybe hummed. My thoughts sticking up like little rabbits in a field, curious, investigating, … Continue reading The Vanishing Point where Stillness Bellows
What a completely blissful day. These are the new rockers we picked up at a garage sale this weekend, and this is the view looking out onto our back field in Southern Oregon. It goes on and on and we end up with stunning sunsets all summer long. I sat out here and read the first chapter of The Conscious Parent for a new reading … Continue reading Endless View from Rocking Chairs
There are three kinds of silence. the first is physical, the silence of the outer world. This quiet world is a precondition for the second silence which is spiritual, the silence of the mind. Which mind, purged of distractions, prepares one for the third silence, the silence of mystical meditation. “When thought stops, words halt, and we move through light toward absolute silence.” “Without … Continue reading Stillness Shrinks Us to Our Own Size
No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, “No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.” ~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (A.D. 121-180), Meditations And yet, it is such a joy to be found, to have someone say out loud what we ourselves … Continue reading Like Gold or Emerald or Purple Repeating to Itself
Tao Tuesdays: Thanks to Amy Putkonen of Tao Ta Ching Daily. Chapter 78 Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the … Continue reading Calm as Water
I like Aha Moments. I’m an Aha Moment Junkie. I have them all the time, and revel in the ways my mind can become excited all over again about a new idea. And then another one, and another one. I’m like a kid in a candy store of thoughts. They’re all so sparkly and shiny and delicious. Which is one reason I love to read. … Continue reading Words and Thoughts that Change our Molecules
Let me preface by saying that after writing today’s reflection, I feel raw because of how much I have to learn. This motherhood thing is ever changing, constant learning, every day more to understand about ourselves and therefore how we parent. I choose to keep thinking that every day I am trying to be better, but a lot of times, I feel the weight of how … Continue reading Lessons in Learning
The way I am learning to meditate, is to be still and quiet, and allow my mind to settle onto something, whatever it wants to settle onto, and keep breathing. It is a very low-key, no stress kind of meditation. I don’t beat myself up for doing it wrong, because there is no wrong way to do it. I read somewhere that given the opportunity … Continue reading Gratitude, Grace and Green Beans
This article is based on a prompt from a blog I enjoy called the Tao Te Ching Daily – which gives beautiful, peaceful, soothing, inviting, mindful advice about living. The Tao, as I understand it, is a philosophy of thought, read and enjoyed by C.S. Lewis among a multitude of others. On her blog, writer Amy Putkonen works through her interpretations of the writings within The … Continue reading Parenting and The Doorway to the Mysteries of Life
I started to say that whenever we have a day where I feel like I’ve given my absolute best, I’ve poured everything I have into this mothering gig, and really done a bang up job, that’s when my kids act out and get crazy and I end up becoming unravelled by bedtime… I started to say that, and then this story popped into my … Continue reading Constantly Knocking Over the Teacups
The last thing you hear on the audio version of this recording is someone saying into the microphone, while the crowd is going crazy, “The Blues Does Not Get Better Than That!” This is Part 2 of the Video of about 12 minutes of performance for a 70th Birthday Bash for John Mayall. This was playing on Pandora while I chopped onions for a stew … Continue reading I Chop Onions and Get Lost in Melancholy for a Moment
We have done a lot of canning this year. Mostly tomatoes and various sauces, because we ridiculously-over-planted tomatoes, by about 40 plants. Yes. We have 48 tomato plants, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our skin tone took on a slight ruddiness after winter and all our put away tomato products! We also did Blackberry Jam, which is easy. You can just turn the jar … Continue reading Jam Jar Half-Full or Half-Empty and Computer Malfunctions
My mind is a complete blank and that is a good thing. Normally, I am filled to the brim with lists of things to do, goals to accomplish, needs to be met, laundry to be folded, or animals to be fed and watered. This morning feels peaceful, still, and dark. I know that later on today, we will be canning the last few batches of tomato … Continue reading Meditations on Relish, the Food, and the Lifestyle!
For me, the challenge is balance. Perhaps my goals are too lofty. Perhaps I have too many things I’d like to accomplish in life. I want a happy family. I have a job that I adore. And I’m a writer. Each of these things is a full-time pursuit. Sometimes my scale tips towards the side of family and we are wrapped up in lots of … Continue reading Getting to the Juicy Part
Last night we watched the family movie, “The Last Airbender.” It is a fantastic tale of a mystic world where people have powers of bending earth, bending water, bending fire, or bending air. Nations form around the four powers. A young boy, perhaps 9 or 10 years old, is the fulfillment of a prophecy. I missed the first part – but I think he was … Continue reading Six-year old Flying Wild Goose
