I love walking in the city, flowing along in a great river of humanity. But under ordinary circumstances I flow along in my own bubble of thought. Most of us live in this contradiction most of the time. We yearn to be part of a larger life, out there in a place where anything can happen at any time, yet safely encased in our own “Fortress of Solitude,” as Superman called his polar retreat. We like being in Metropolis, but not of it. Superman, Spiderman, Batman, the quintessential New York-based comic book heroes, swooped in to perform astonishing deeds at…
The Search for Meaning
By Tracy Cochran
On Being Nobody…and No One
How deeply we fear being nobody. One way to think of the ego is as a defense against pain, particularly the pain of being no one. It shores us up, reminding us that we are somebody. We update our internal resumes and narratives constantly. We seek new skills and go on self-improvement regimes of all…
Be Straw
Once a poor miller was summoned to meet with a king. The summons itself must have filled him with terror. Evolutionary biologists tell us that we fear public speaking and other ways of being on the spot because we are all wired to link survival with acceptance by the tribe. And this king was the…
Let it Be
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. Paul McCartney wrote this famous song about his own mother Mary, who died when…
Holy Swiss
Anything can happen at any time. This is the truth of impermanence. Last Sunday, some of us experienced this in a delightful way. Swiss, a one-year-old Service Dog in training, came to sit with us as we meditated. Recently, I was talking about dogs and there she stood, a one-year-old half Golden, half Labrador Retriever.…
Spring as a Practice
“The trees are coming into leaf /Like something almost being said,” writes the poet Philip Larkin. Spring really does spring, doesn’t it? Walking outside these days is like walking into a big green, murmuring party. This can bring a twist of longing. We want to be part of the conversation but we can’t quite hear…
Holy Week
This is Holy Week, a good time to reflect on what it can mean to be part of a greater wholeness. It is also Passover, celebrating liberation from bondage. Strange as it may sound, being still is also a way of coming to a new wholeness, a way of feasting on your life, realizing that…
Snow Day Reflection
There are different kinds of realizations. They are not always lightening bolts but sometimes soft and slow, as if snow were quietly falling and settling. Softly and slowly, as we relax into our practice and our life, we can come to see and feel the way we habitually treat life as an enemy to be…
The Space Between
“Between stimulus and response there is a space, “ writes psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl in his unforgettable memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning. “In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” When we practice mindfulness meditation, we enter the conscious space between stimulus and…
