There’s not much to say about gratitude that hasn’t already been said. Major faith traditions put a lot of creativity and structure into helping people feel thankful for what they have. Gratitude puts people in a frame of mind to appreciate that even among the worst kinds of struggles, there are still struggles we don’t… Continue reading Gratitude
On this blog, I’ve posted a host of meditations, and basically not a single one of them is strictly a mindfulness meditation. This is despite the fact that I am a longtime practitioner of mindfulness meditation. I like my thinky little gee-whiz meditations, and I hope you do too. They make me feel connected and… Continue reading Ambitious Meditation
Drinkers, after all, find other drinkers. We tend to choose people who speak a certain language: Let’s go get a drink. Let’s have another. Oh, c’mon. Just one more… The chorus plays in the mind, liquid lyrics. The drinker who’s always game for another, who’d rather stay and drink than go out and eat, who… Continue reading A Chorus of Drinkers
Everyone hates the Fat Kid. The Fat Kid is always annoying, whiny, and soft. No one in the 80s had any hesitation making fun of the fat kid’s weight. From Vern in “Stand By Me” to Chunk in “The Goonies,” there were abundant models of what the Fat Kid is like, and how you should… Continue reading Fat Kid
Next to plants and oceans and mountains, animals are one of the best things the planet has going on. I love animals; I am one myself. But as you know if you’ve read even a handful of my essays, I also love non-human animals – cats in particular, but really, they are all great. You… Continue reading Animal Lives
It’s the framework psychologists love to hate – Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler’s 5 stages of grief. A lot of this hostility is rooted in the misunderstanding that the expectation is that people march through these stages in order, when in reality, they are constantly shuttling between them – in denial about one aspect,… Continue reading Addiction and the 5 Stages of Grief
Of all the spectacular things going on on this planet, plants are at the top of the list. Living in a temperate rainforest, I am phenomenally lucky to luxuriate in the sprawl of forests that roam for miles and miles, but farmlands and deserts and oceans are abundant with plants too. They are everywhere, and… Continue reading Breathing with the Plants Meditation
