On this day in 1850 Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, while returning to America with her husband and infant child, drowned in a shipwreck just off the coast of Fire Island in New York. One of my real heroes, I wish she were better known… And I wish there were better videos on Youtube about her. But, at least these are sincere, I hope tantalizing,  and the later points to very good book, so, here you go… Read more

Early on Wednesday I got in the car and took the seven and a half hour drive up to Batavia, just outside of Rochester, New York, where the Rochester Zen Center’s country retreat, Chapin Mill is. Took me a tad under ten hours… Wednesday is casual, but by tradition features gender specific gatherings. The women planned something. The men wandered around aimlessly before most gradually coming together near the swimming pond. There has been much sadness of late regrading sexual... Read more

I’m at an American Zen Teachers Association conference outside of Rochester, NY. Great conference, astonishingly beautiful Zen retreat center. Lousy web access. Probably no posts ’till I return… Read more

Here I am, sitting in a Starbucks, part of a rest area on Interstate 90, about a hundred miles East of Rochester, New York. Early this morning I started driving to Chapin Mill in Batavia, which is outside of Rochester, to attend this year’s gathering of the American Zen Teachers Association. Only twenty-seven are attending this year, not one of the larger meetings. I look forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some I hope will become friends. I’m... Read more

So, I was standing on line at the Seven Stars Bakery when the door to the restroom swung wide. Out walked a three-year old boy wiping his hands on a paper towel, proudly proclaiming to all and sundry “I went. I went.” His father followed, blushing ever so slightly. My companions on line smiled and expressed sotto voce that going is a great thing. Gradually I made my way to the front of the line. I requested a half loaf... Read more

One day during meditation, I was contemplating global warming…. With some anguish, I asked Nature this question: ‘Nature, do you think we can rely on you?’  I asked the question because I know that Nature is intelligent, she knows how to react, sometimes violently, to re-establish balance.  And I heard the answer in the form of another question: ‘Can I rely on you?’  The question was being put back to me: can Nature rely on humans? And after long, deep... Read more

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Over at Carl McColman’s Anamchara: the Website of Unknowing, one of my favorite Christian blogs, Carl reflects briefly on chapters seventeen and eighteen of the anonymous Medieval mystical text the Cloud of Unknowing. There the author reflects on the story of Martha and Mary and how Martha, who has been doing all the work while Mary has been sitting with Jesus, wants Jesus to instruct Mary to get to work. Instead Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better... Read more

So, here I am, sitting in a Starbucks in Watertown square working on my book. I’d dropped Jan off at Perkins and will be going to my dermatologist in a couple of hours (after the basal cell a couple of years ago he said we were going to be very good friends…) I’m rummaging through sermons and monkey mind columns hoping for bits of wisdom that might fit the book. There aren’t lots of people at the tables, but there... Read more

Following our family holiday down to Washington D.C. for the fireworks and then a brief visit to the great Gotham, we’re now back to Providence. We have family plans over the weekend which involve exploring Rhode Island and a quest for the perfect Clam shack. Otherwise I won’t be too far away until the American Zen Teacher’s Association gathering the following weekend. Before taking off Melissa and I were able to send off the ms for the Book of Mu:... Read more