Monthly Archives: June 2011

I’m beginning to suspect that the quality of a life is defined by how you deal with the gap between what you want and what life gives.   What did I want when I dropped all my work and went off on a retreat last week, agreeing to work in the kitchen all week no less?Continue reading “Solitude and Community”

I’m packing to go away again, this time to a camp on a lake in the woods in the foothills of the Catskills.  This time I was invited not by Buddhists but by friends in the Gurdjieff Work in New York.  And this time, I am volunteering to be a co-leader of the kitchen (thisContinue reading “Into the Fire”

By tomorrow,  New York will be embraced by record heat, which is nothing compared to the environmental apocalypse that seems to be unfolding in other parts of the country and the world.  The old economy doesn’t seem to be coming back and most of us lack the farming and do-it-yourself skills we may need toContinue reading “In the Long Boat”

At any given moment, we can transform our relationship to life.  How?  Pay attention.  Pay really, really, really close attention.  I know.  We’ve all heard this a million times, but really, try it!  It’s transformative!   I glimpsed this last week, choosing to try to be mindful inside and outside while I was on aContinue reading “The Inexpressible Privacy of Life”