Category: Personal Life

I Love Autumn

I wonder what it is that predisposed me, or opened me up, to fall, autumn colors, impermanence and Buddhism.

Honoring a Daughter’s Spirit, and a Son’s

Thomas was a thinker and a writer who had not yet found a niche and an audience. I never expressed sufficient pride in his attempts, but I know he’d be proud of me now that I seem to be finding a niche of my own and an audience. His spirit lives on in this blog just as Sienna’s spirit lives on in the Tulsa Children’s Museum.

Becoming a Laureate

Many of us — at least those born into the developed nations of the world, knowing that our basic needs will be met — start life thinking that anything is possible. Fame and fortune may await us.

Everyday Healers

I wanted to honor the doctors, nurses, and other volunteers who put themselves in harm’s way because, well, they say to themselves: “If I don’t do it, who will?”

Resonance

…It’s a something-ness we don’t yet understand. It may simply be the quality of being fully right here now in the present moment that awakens our Resonance. It may be the sense that overwhelms us when we look up at the sky on a clear dark night or hear a particular musical passage.

Confession and Redemption

I believe that Kelly Gissendaner achieved confession and found redemption. As you probably know, she was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to death for the murder of her husband, which she is said to have orchestrated. She was 28 at the time of the murder, a survivor of prolonged and repeated sexual abuse in childhood. In…

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Belief in God

After all, as the Buddha seemed to understand, everything in our universe is made of the same cosmic dust particles that are ever-moving, ever-changing, ever-dancing, and always connecting and reconnecting.

Marpa’s Grief

Buddhism…recognizes that we spend most of our lives here in the “relative” world, where pain is very real and nothing to be ashamed of.

Making a Sad Song Better

I have almost no academic credentials, but life has given me a doctorate in recovering from traumatic loss.

The Book of Mel

“I made ministers and priests and rabbis and shamans and imams and monks and churches and synagogues and mosques and temples and so on to help heal my people’s souls, to help them with their overwhelming questions about intangible things, like why are we here, why do we suffer, and how do we face death.”