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Thrummed Mittens – Now with 18 % more fuzz
I went to a workshop last December to learn how to knit these fabulous mittens that have a fuzzy lining. Someday I’ll even put the thumbs on them. It was fun, and the mittens are pretty, and if you live near me and like knitting, I highly recommend going to The Bobbin Tree the next…
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The Cuteness of Cuttlefish
I know, it’s been a million years. Life, you know? Anyway. My kids are going along, doing cute kid stuff. My car died, and I got a new one, and the roof is leaking and we’re going to have to renegotiate the mortgage, and I still haven’t managed to place any paid writing, or even…
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The Conditioned Self and Enlightenment
What we experience as our “self” (the talking blah-blah identity part) is a bundle of beliefs and stories we have learned about the world. Some of those are verbal and we can articulate them, although they tend to be sweeping generalizations (1)… But they are also stored in our bodies, in the reactivity of our…
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Meaning is Not a Luxury
I feel silly even pointing out that one of the major debates in higher education is the employment skills vs. liberal studies question. But it is best to introduce your topic clearly, so let us be clear: this is what I’m referring to when I say that meaning is not a luxury. As I have…
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Primacy of Reason, Primacy of Text
We have lived for generations with a particular idea of an educated human being as the highest ideal, with a particular type of education being exemplary. The “best” meaning is that which has been most thought through, and the most clearly articulated in writing. To be human is to think, to think is to reason,…
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The Problem of Naming
“This is a Blarg,” said my partner, placing his glass of wine in the middle of the table. We were at a friend’s house late in the evening, on a rare vacation without our children. The conversation had taken a turn, as they frequently do in my world, for the philosophical. We had a moment…
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A Question of Scale
“You live at the boundary between the past and the future, surfing on the accumulated experience of a billion billion sentient beings.” You are somewhere in this universe. This should be obvious, but it cannot be overemphasized. You are somewhere. What is more, you are some size, and you will live for some period of…
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Voila! Instant Art!
I’m taking a Coursera course about art concepts, and this week the assignment was to create an environmental installation piece. Since I had it up, photographed, and down within 10 minutes, I felt that I should share it more broadly… give it a chance to breathe, as it were. So, without further ado, Garden Party!…
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Parenting Towards Enlightenment
We, a class of aspiring yoga teachers, are sitting on the floor of the meditation hall at the ashram in India when the conversation turns to the conflict between practice and parenting. “But how,” asks one of the men, “do you work with being here when your children are somewhere else? You have to worry…
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Peaceful Practice
This was originally posted on The Peaceful Professional, another blog of mine which has apparently suffered catastrophic failure due to neglect. That is to say, I can’t find it any more, having made some errors in setting it up that I haven’t been able to repair. It is dead (for now), but the writing lives…
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Poem: My Missing Skin
I think I left my skin somewhere. How else to explain This longing, yearning To return to the sea the sky the land To crawl through the undergrowth Belly-ground touching, Scales tingling with Anticipation Oh, to eat Unencumbered To fly, knowing that This is all there is! To leap, fully alive, From the depths and…
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I could be anything
If you could be anything, what would it be? “Anything?” she said. “Sure. Anything.” hmm… famous, beautiful, rich, immortal, a whale, a dolphin, a famous movie star… “I’ve got it!” she said. “So soon?” “So soon, so obvious.” “Well then, oh clever one, what will it be?” “Complete.” *** “And,” he said, after a pause…