Miscellany
Finding My Religion
That summer we pretended we were orphans, two sisters torn apart by misfortune, reunited by happenstance with only Earth to parent us. Hair matted thick from days of hill country winds and no one to make us bathe, we decided on a movie star...
How She Regained Her Soul
The heart was the last to go but left a clue where to find her: a smooth river rock heavy in my chest. I knew long before — an image had relayed the nature of her plea — a vision of us together feeling the wind breathe the trees. For so long I resisted the urge...
According to Yellow Bird
The prince planted the woman in red amidst the spring sorghum. That year the sun struck the moondown to Earthand stalks grew as high as the baobabs. The woman seemed to disappearin her cage of grassand the prince told her to whistleso he could find her....
Your Place in the Universe
You think it’s an ordinary day, although warm for early morning in the desert sun. You decide to nap in the shade of a Palo Verde tree, but your mind is heavy with remembrances and regret, so many days wasted in self-absorption while affections went neglected, the...
The Loveless Trajectory of Sexual Abuse
Long before their falling-out, Carl Jung shared a tragic memory in a letter to Sigmund Freud: “... as a boy I was the victim of a sexual assault by a man I once worshipped” (cited in John Kerr's A Most Dangerous Method). Jung also shared his infatuation with Freud:...
I spent over a decade dreaming of visiting Bhutan, imagining what this country is like that prioritizes happiness, protects the environment, and safeguards equality of women. It didn’t seem possible, like a Shangri-la. At one point, I started to like my dream of Bhutan more than the idea of traveling there. When I finally visited, I discovered a remarkable country yet certainly not paradise. Their lives have the same struggles people have around the world – making ends meet, raising families, taking care of their homes and communities, petty work politics, too much time spent on smart phones, etc. Bhutan’s sovereignty also feels fragile given its location between two of the world’s greatest powers, China and India. Yet Bhutan is special. There’s a shared commitment to bringing Buddhism to everyday life – to being a peaceful nation that attends to the welfare of all living things. While there, I thought about how we might apply some of their values and practices in the United States. The Bhutanese would remind me that Bhutan is a small nation, which makes it easier to be cohesive. I suspect they are correct, but what if we thought of ourselves as smaller, more tightknit, more dependent on each other? Sure, I’m an idealist, but maybe we only need a shift in perspective to begin the journey toward a more just and sustainable world.
What is life? It is the flash of the firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is in the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
— Crowfoot, Blackfoot Warrior (1830-1890)