Let’s consider whether we see a crescent moon, a half moon or a full moon. In any of the phases of the moon before it is full, is anything truly lacking? — Maezumi Roshi One day a girl looked up at t...
My uncle was a star among us. As a 12-year-old, he had a calling from God, or at least a push from his parents. This was the only kind of call that counted in rural Central Texas at the time. It mean...
I’ve trained a bluejay, out of my own delight, to perch like a cat outside my door. He doesn’t want me to sprout wings and fly. He can fly. He doesn’t want a song and dance. He has ...
“Too many notes.” — Emperor Joseph II’s criticism to Mozart Truth is, I don’t consider anything I’ve ever written to be a memoir. I don’t even think I tell stories. I un-tell stories. I u...
On Wednesday evenings I’ve taken to watching TV with my daughter. It’s her one night off from gym practice and after she finishes homework, she likes to tune in to a controversial reality show called...
It’s not hard to make your first movie. It’s not hard to make your second movie. What’s hard is to make your third movie. — Meryl Streep Meryl Streep says and does things I like. This was what she sa...
We spent the day emptying drawers, sorting “keep” or “go,” hauling bags of trash and giveaways, swiping piles of dust. My husband and I have relented to buying my daughter a n...
This probably puts me in the category of a Kevin Costner sympathizer. I’ve begun thinking in apocalyptic terms about what seems certain to be the demise of the US Postal Service. Admittedly, I&...
Whenever I see something I’ve written reflected back this way, I know the message is for me. That’s the case with this excerpt from Hand Wash Cold, which is being recirculated right about...
I’m posting this early because everyone likes to have their fortune told. You will bribe her with french fries storm the gates of the forbidden amassing a mortuary of happy meal toys and extra ...
The mountains have more snow. Georgia dragged her jacket out today and went outside for one minute before she agreed it was too cold. She was happy to read and play inside today. My sister sent me an...
To the woman pulling out of the parking lot on Friday who rolled her window down and said, “Are you Momma Zen?” To the ones who asked. And the ones who came. To the one who wrote, “...
This one got to me: “I’m not sure if you remember me, but I attended your workshop in ——. After the workshop, I told my mother how much I had enjoyed reading Hand Wash Cold and how speci...
Back in September 2010, I was surprised one morning by what turned up on my computer: a generous review of Hand Wash Cold on the Tiny Buddha website. You may know how relatively unschooled I am at so...
I’m home. Stop. The yard looks nice. Stop. But the weeds took over. Stop. The dog is shedding. Stop. The hair is everywhere. Stop. The mail is high. Stop. All bills I bet. Stop. The fridge is e...
If you want to keep me awake at night, ask me about my writing process. (I haven’t ever figured it out.) So I took notice when my friend Christine Mason Miller dropped by for no good reason during ...
Digging out from a hundred-year windstorm, neighbors without roofs and windows, trees shredded, landscapes buried, no heat, no light, no relief in sight, gives new meaning to the word, “leave.” I’m l...
It took a very long while. Thirteen years. It took a lot of people. Nine thousand or so. We had to travel a far way. From California to Florida. To wake up awfully early. Five a.m. We took a car, a p...
This morning I am sitting beside the Atlantic ocean, and it is windy. The first time I came close to waking up out of my highly cultivated neuroses, I was at a weeklong meditation retreat in the high...
The first email came at 2:24 a.m., a sob in the dark from a woman in Amsterdam, the mother of two tenderly young sons and the wife of a man who had just been diagnosed with one of the most virulent f...
When my daughter was born prematurely, they said she might not breathe. Then they said she might be in a hospital for two months. They said she might need a year to catch up. Soon enough, she was at ...
Not long ago I heard from someone who thanked me for giving her permission to struggle with her depression. Oh yes, I assured her, by all means, struggle! Depression is the sane response to the insan...
Last week I received this message from a young mother. I asked if I could respond to her via this post so others would benefit. No matter what our stage of parenting, we could all use a little time o...
This is not a post you might expect from me, but you’ve heard the likes of it before. I know I don’t need to write this, but I have been quiet so long. Yesterday there was a stereotypical...
Staring from family photographs, we look older than we are. Even as children, our faces are shadowed with doubt and parental disappointment, as if to say to those looking years from now: We persist. ...
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. – The Beatles I’ve just completed 13,000 miles of travel this fall. What’s the takeaway? A giveaway. Go to Taslim’s ...
Dense fog covered the foothills this morning. It rolled over the ground in such billows I thought it might be fire. But it was love. I used to wish I had the presence of mind to mark my calendar ever...
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An actual email exchange. Hello, I am interested in Zen practice and live nearby. I’d like to schedule a visit sometime soon. >Thank you for contacting us. We recommend that you first take t...
Sometimes I offer to do these things for you and others; sometimes I’m asked. So I do them, although all the power in your life resides with you. These are the verses I chant. You can chant the...
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