It could be someone you never had the courage to love, holding you in the night.   Or talking all night with a lifelong friend, both of you lucid and hungry, the talk peeling, not adding up, but peeling into uncontrollable laughter and the smell of honey.   It could be swimming deeper than ever, alongside iridescent fish, copying their wriggle for light.   Or taking something apart so thoroughly—a car, a watch—that it never has to be put together... Read more

You taught me to keep a chisel sharp. You showed me on old pine, always the sample board. “Don’t stop in mid-stroke or the board will splinter.” “Once you start, keep pushing through.” You’d pick up the perfect shaving from the floor and rub it between your fingers. Your other hand would rub the grain revealed. How you’d smile. You went somewhere unreachable. When I read Plato years later, all  his squawk about absolute forms, I knew that’s where you... Read more

Faith is an act of ultimate concern. —Paul Tillich By faith, I don’t mean obedience to any principle or doctrine or person, but more, a faith in life. Faith is our covenant with life no matter what befalls us. It is our belief that we are part of something larger than us. It is our commitment to let all that is larger than us be our teacher. What light is for plants and flowers, faith is for human souls. It... Read more

What I love about you most is how you become what you care for. You are eager to begin, but in no hurry to leave. And so, when you offered to build a bookcase in which my tall wooden Ganesh can look over me as I dive into the ancient swirl of secrets that are only secret because we refuse to become what we care for—it made me love you more. It took many seasons and you shared every step,... Read more

You ask, “How can I hold on?” I remember being forced to let go, to let the torrent take me beyond all I could imagine.   You ask, “Are we doomed to repeat our mistakes?” I only know that when exhausted I could finally accept that we are privileged to have more than one chance to come alive.   You ask, “Why is it all unbearable?” I want to rock you until you under- stand that the dark is there... Read more

That the Universe comes through your heart is like the sun passing light through the eye of a needle. It happens beyond all reasoning.   And though one feather will fall, many together form a wing, the way love, not kept to ourselves, will carry us.   It is a deeper form of gravity, that only the things that find each other come alive. A Question to Walk With: Tell the story of a time when you felt the Universe... Read more

The homeless man with no legs crawls on his dolly like a snail while the world keeps whizzing by. No one wants to lose their legs, to go that slow. But sometimes, we’re forced to stop in order to empty ourselves of everything that’s in the way. Love can stop us in our tracks just as swiftly as suffering. It’s up to us to choose love before suffering takes our legs out from under us. In truth, every time I... Read more

The mind moves like a pencil. The heart moves like a brush.   While the mind can draw exquisite prints, the heart with its deep bright colors will ignore the lines.   If you only follow your mind, you will never go outside the lines.   If you only follow your heart, what you touch will never resemble anything.   We must be a student of both.   For the mind can build itself a home, but only the heart... Read more