The prophet Zarathustra, whose name means undiluted star, said that gravity is the irrefutable force of love that binds us together. And the Chinese sage Mencius said that our impulse to drop everything to save a child from falling into a well—this holds everything together. And the rabbis of Eastern Europe rang their bells at dawn like spiritual roosters, barking that God is dormant until you are in relationship. They would chant, “Get up and make God visible!” Isn’t this... Read more

When I say that I retrieve the poems, I mean I am part of a relational process that allows the intangible forces of life to be seen in the world. I speak about discovery and retrieval over authorship, because I don’t believe we create things out of nothing. At least, that has been my lifelong experience. It’s more a conversation with the unknown and the unseeable. I am not retrieving from some other world but from this one. In ancient... Read more

This is how it happens. Everything runs smoothly till suddenly the body, like a car, overheats. It coughs and creaks. It won’t start in the rain. For me, my stomach was unable to process all I swallowed, and one day it stopped working like a backed-up sink. One too many bites and the pain was unbearable. After a week of tests, I was at the store picking up cottage cheese when I realized I had to keep living. I put... Read more

Another great paradox is how the soul, the most intimate of all our connections to the Mystery, is so intrinsic and personal, and yet, at its very inception point, it remains eternally impersonal. This is akin to how intimate the light in a barn is for the sheep and horses and farmer who feeds them every morning. Their experience of the light that filters through the crack in the roof is very personal. But the vast, formless, undying light outside... Read more

The Japanese word for emancipation, todatsu, means “a fish slipping out of the net.” It implies that we must face and shed everything that gets in the way, if we are to transform. We are constantly challenged in life to slip out of the net, whether that net is imposed on us and of our own making. Having slipped out of several nets through the years and having woven even more, I’m drawn to understand our various forms of entanglement,... Read more

When humans forgot the Oneness that Binds them, Zeus became so discouraged that he abdicated his throne as the protector and father of all gods and humans. In his absence, Phoroneus, whose name means “bringer of a price,” became the first king of men. Ever since, there has been a price for everything. In 1886, shortly after Thomas Edison commercialized the electric light bulb, about 1000 birds died after colliding with illuminated towers in Decatur, Illinois. The price for constant... Read more

We are mistaught that the self is all about us, when the self that is life-giving is an inlet, not a container. The authentic self is a conduit that lets the rest of life in. It connects the inner world and the outer world. The function of a true self is to merge realities, not separate them. So, to tend to the self is not just the work of polishing our preferences or even the work of monitoring the status... Read more

After we die, we weigh twenty-one grams less. This is the weight of wakefulness, light as seven hummingbirds. Who then are these quivering angels? Certainly, care is one, and wonder is another, and our irrepressible want to be in the light, and our will to live. Then there’s our need to hold and be held. And let’s leave two unnamed, just to respect the Mystery and to honor how much we’ll never know. I like to imagine that when we’re... Read more

Like those stone islands close to the surface, that show at low tide but are hidden when the moon is full, we wait for all that we hide to be loved into the open. This is why we search for true friends, steadfast as the moon, because their tide of honest conversation makes us reveal ourselves. So that things that wing from the sky, like mercy and grace, can land on us and free us of our litany of mistakes.... Read more

A lone remaining leaf trembles in the early air like the one soft memory of how we met so many years ago. In the midst of all the noise and traffic, something very simple and ancient trembled between us like this leaf. And every worry and plan fell away. From that moment, I only wanted to be near you, the way a hummingbird does all that work to simply hover near something sweet and lasting. A Question to Walk With:... Read more