A zillion studies show the depth and breadth of our relationships determine our ultimate happiness. Want to improve life on all fronts?...

For many years, I believed life was something I possessed. From the first breath until the last, my purpose was to discover my mission...

I was once a Franciscan friar but not a monk. Friars live and serve out in the world. Monks live, work and pray in a monastery. They take...

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an...

When Patrick and I married 25 years ago, we vowed to make our home a place of love and welcome. We try to keep that promise. Our dining...

A joy shared is a joy doubled and a burden shared is a burden halved. When I was a novice with the Franciscans, Fr. James Cox, an elderly...

It is no secret that the beach is my happy place. Maybe because some part of my subconscious remembers the first 9 months of life in my...

Humans survived thanks to a negativity bias. This way of thinking helped our ancestors avoid being eaten by a lion, but today it can trap...

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer...

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean— the one who has flung...

Body like the mountain, Heart like the ocean, Mind like the sky. Master Dogen zenmasterdogen.com Let your mind be like the sky. The same...

Body like the mountain, Heart like the ocean, Mind like the sky. Master Dogen zenmasterdogen.com Often the beauty of nature lifts me up...

In June, we celebrate summer. I love these sunny days and spending time in nature. With that theme in mind, I’m drawing inspiration from...

Good meditation teachers may inspire and move you but the best teachers don't actually teach anything at all. Rather, they show you the...

As the body holds the breath, so the earth holds the body. Breath, body, and earth are three realms where I dwell. It is essentially a...

The Inca believed that our soul waits before we are born at the center of the universe and that we pick the time and the place into which...

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart 13th century German mystic For me,...

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,...

Over the last few weeks, you’ve constructed a framework for meditation. First, you set up an inviting space. Second, you focused the mind...

You’ve created a welcoming space. You’ve arrived. Now pay attention to your physical posture. Be upright but not uptight. In other words,...