Day 1 – How lovingkindness helps with monkey mind. How did your first day go? I find when returning to #meditation or even for the first time can be challenging because our thoughts are always intruding. Having the “template” of #lovingkindness can help. “may I be safe, be happy, be healthy, and live with ease”…
Category: blog
Street-Wise Compassion
It’s easy, at least for me, to feel compassion (and act up on it) when encountering someone less fortunate than I. The man sitting on the ground, by the entrance of the Starbuck’s on the corner of Broadway and 66th street, for example. I met him on Monday, as I exited the M104 bus to…
Interconnectedness
There is something so powerful motivating about being in a large room (conference center at Menla Mountain), surrounded by mountains, by trees, chirping birds (and chipmunks), laborious woodpeckers, beautiful thangkas and the remnants of memories of a New Year’s Eve retreat with Robert Thurman and Sharon Salzberg. But alas, after four days of trail restoration in the Catskills,…
Do Something For You
We are fast approaching the end of the first week of #MettainMay, 31 days of lovingkindness meditation. Funny how time flies, no? In the spirit, then, of not only caring for others, but ourselves as well, I will be spending four days at beautiful Menla Mountain (Center for Health and Happiness). I am going to be,…
Exercising the Writing Muscle: Stretch & Flex
I don’t often have time in my work schedule to sit, check Facebook, post on Twitter, watch Law and Order marathons, write and reflect. If I did, I would probably be a danger to myself. But today, oddly, I do. And as a motivation, I stopped in my local B&N for an hour’s time dedicated to…
You Can’t Step In the Same River Twice
This quote from Heraclitus has been one of my favorites and surely one I remind myself of quite a bit. I thought it would be an appropriate title for my grand return to blogging. I know I have teased my audience (or lack there of) for a while, taunting my readers with posts of writing again and promises…
Lessons Learned – Part II
In case you are not familiar, Graves’ Disease is an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid and whose most familiar symptom is bulging eyes. You know, like Marty Feldman. February In a strike force, ninja-like action fit of brilliance, my mom, supported by her friend Dr. R, made an appointment with an endocrinologist in the city, for a…
Lessons Learned – Part I
They say that all things that happen in your lives, the really big things, are lessons to be learned. The universe has a subtle (and often not so subtle) way of teaching us. In the last several months, almost half a year, actually, the universe has decided to “teach” my mother (and consequently myself) a…
When I Used To Write
I remember a time when I used to write regularly. When putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) was second nature. I remember when my thoughts weren’t defined by 140 characters or a status update or, egad, liking something. I remember when I used to read and looked forward to some time to myself, a comfortable…
Eulogy For My Father
There are many talents that my father possessed: dedication to work and generosity are among the many and the quickest that come to mind. But, when I think back at his many qualities, the one talent that may not have been so apparent, but it is one that I hope I have inherited. What…