I attend a sangha at least once a month. Today the theme was belonging. I have always wanted to feel like I belong, just like pretty much everyone else. As a child, I did my best to fit in, although I had competing groups so I had to pick one. Probably because I spent the… Continue reading Belonging
This week, I let myself hope that my extended time on muscle relaxers and additional back pain was coming to an end. I let myself hope that last week, too, and it didn't work out. But this week felt different. During the day on Monday I felt really good with only half a muscle relaxer… Continue reading The Insidiousness of Hope
I've been busy lately working, starting a new job, and doing physical therapy for my acute back strain, so my poor blog has been neglected. Also, being on muscle relaxers constantly for over a month takes a toll on my brain power. I'm finally beginning to taper down to lower doses, so hopefully my brain… Continue reading Emptying the Mind When Life is Full
My husband and I have a tradition of touring most of the HPBs around our city when they do special sales. We hit four over this long weekend and found lots of goodies. Pictured is my haul.
In pop culture, I often hear people say "it's complicated" to indicate their relationship status. Usage has expanded to cover just about any aspect of life. Everything, after all, is complicated in the sense that there are a million moving parts and facets acting upon each moment. Yet, many also contend it is simple. Either… Continue reading It’s Not Just Complicated, It’s Downright Slippery
Yesterday I went to a healing sound meditation event at a local park. The day was cool but sunshine beautifully filtered through the trees and only a light breeze swept over the small fishing pond. Just enough movement to keep the sage smoke traveling over the group. It was not a Buddhist event, yet I… Continue reading Z is for Zen and My (Currently?) Favorite Zen Author
Is there value to life when it all leads to death? What actually provides value in this life? These are questions I don't know the answer to. Hence, I am calling them a koan, a starting point for meditative inquiry. I have come across several takes on the story of Buddha's enlightenment. In case you… Continue reading V is for Value: A Koan
Yesterday, I wrote about the Tower tarot card. One challenge of it is not viewing the difficult changes in life as necessarily bad. I've also been doing a good deal of Buddhist readings and recently came across several articles about viewing the "bad" or hard things that happen to us as a teacher to help… Continue reading U is for Upsides to Life’s Crap
Lately, the concreteness of what can be known has been on my mind. It's something I've pondered on and off for many, many years. I will probably continue to contemplate the boundaries of knowledge for the rest of my life. Everyone (probably) knows what these questions are like. Why is there suffering and pain? How… Continue reading Q is for Questions that are Left Open-ended
I recently spent a good deal of time in the car with my husband. We were traveling to see my mom and then driving back, all in a long weekend. It gave us time to catch up on some podcasts. We listened to the first several episodes of the current season of Invisibilia. It's a… Continue reading P is for Patterns and Questioning Just How Predictable We Humans Are
