As a culture, we’re really big on the “inspirational quotation.” We stick it in our email signatures, post it on Facebook, print it out and frame it. If you’re of a certain generation, you might cross-stitch it onto a small pillow. If you’re of another generation, you might tattoo it across your shoulder blades. The [...]
8:47am, June 8, 2012 I stopped beneath the linden tree, looked up at sun streaming down through the bright green leaves, inhaled deeply, and smiled. I shut my eyes and I inhaled again and again. The rich, heavy fragrance that wafts from linden trees during these precious few weeks of May and June is unlike [...]
Tomorrow, I turn 27. There will be little fanfare, but there will be quiet reflection. In the past two weeks, I took two lifelong vows. First, I took the Refuge Vow, in which I (officially) became a Buddhist by taking refuge in the Buddha as the example I will follow, the Dharma as the teachings I [...]
I am surrounded by piles of clothes. It started out as a closet spelunking expedition in search of a blond Marilyn Monroe wig to lend to a friend. Little did I know I was tapping into a dormant geyser. My pint-sized closet exploded across my quart-sized room. It’s too late to turn back now. I [...]
I awoke at 4am to the sounds of Hurricane Irene battering my building. As I clambered sleepily down from my loft, I noted the blinking green modem light at the foot of the ladder and the soft yellow glow of a streetlamp out back. ‘Electricity,’ I noted, relieved. Nonetheless, I grabbed a lighter before padding [...]
The demise of four years of companionship left me struggling to remember what it meant to stand upon my own two feet. It was an outrageously clean slate. Achy and raw and frightening, yes, but also incredibly clean and fresh. Even through the fog of confusion and pain, it was almost immediately apparent that I [...]
At around 4:45 this morning, I found myself caught in the throes of a terrible dream. My dream self fell to the floor, sobbing and wailing. My embodied self moaned, “Nooo!” and I awoke, safe and shaking in my own sheets, as the last of the plaintive cry passed across my lips. My vocalization blurred [...]
The teacher asked us to break into pairs, sit quietly, and make extended eye contact with each other. I turned toward the man sitting next to me, a complete stranger, and my insides quaked. I tried looking into his eyes. Too hard. I tried focusing on his forehead. Too obvious. I tried extra-long blinks with [...]
“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” Franz Kafka Posted on our community [...]
It was quiet, as Tuesday evenings often are. Tea was finished, snacks eaten. Conversation faded gently away. The handful of people stood up, bid each other good night, and slipped out the door. I found myself alone. I carried the tray of mugs and glasses back to the kitchen. Suddenly each step I took felt heavy [...]
