The real holy of holies happens in sobriety when relationships with self and others are healthy and whole.

Surrendering to the truth of my addiction has been the most empowering act of my life.

I take care of myself first, because I am deserving of exquisite care. I take care of myself to maintain the capacity to help others. I move and stretch my body every day. I spend time in nature, attuning my senses to the earth's wisdom. I ration my daily exposure to the news....

On my worst days, it is gravity I am most grateful for: the way the earth pulls at me from her core, yearns for me, keeps me pressed tightly against her surface. When my own core is hollowed out, when I have no more mass than a leaf dead on the branch, still this is enough for the earth to find me.

Here is where I found my voice and chose to be brave. Here’s a place where I forgave someone, against my better judgment, and I survived that, and unexpectedly, amazingly, I became wiser. Here’s where I was once forgiven, was ready for once in my life to receive forgiveness and to be...

Once, many grey autumns ago, I came upon a tree. The tree, a poplar, had dropped all of its leaves but for one, just one. Exactly one leaf remained near the topmost part of the tree, fluttering in the breeze like a little reddish-brown flag....

I knew a man who had printed on his stationary this proverb: “Nothing is settled. Everything matters.” It established a certain ambience for reading his letters, as if to say: what you are about to read is to be taken seriously, but is not final. I remember him and his proverb sometimes,...

As we attempt to walk responsibly on this planet, we need perspective. If we hope to make a difference, we need a place from which to act. What are the Buddhist insights that can make our lives deeper and more productive? This is the purpose of zazen and koans: I walk down to the corner store and...

In the midst of the whirling day, In the hectic rush to be doing, In the frantic pace of life, Pause here for a moment. Catch your breath; Relax your body; Loosen your grip on life....

In between, liminal, that space where we wait. Between moments; events, results, action, no action. To stand on the threshold, waiting for something to end, And something new to arrive, a pause in the rumble of time. Awareness claims us, alert, a shadow of something different....

I have learned some things about life from canoes. I’m not saying I know how to paddle. I have been in canoes twice, and both have been learning experiences. The second time was fun. The first time, a friend and I decided to take one out on a lake. We slid the canoe into the water. She hopped in.

The universe does not revolve around you. The stars and planets spinning through the ballroom of space dance with one another quite outside of your small life. You cannot hold gravity or seasons; even air and water inevitably evade your grasp. Why not, then, let go?...

It’s hard to believe it is finished. She was so full of life and fun until just before the end— keeping track of people, enjoying the outdoors, caring for family, all of it. Something came for her. She did not want to go. She denied the summons, fighting this final truth of her life. We did not...

In our experience of letting go, may we be open to the possibility that we need not pick our worries back up.

Spirit of life and love, In this season of beginning Some of us are hurried and harried. Some of us feel sorrowful and afraid. Some of us are not yet ready to step forward into the future. May we minister to one another with wisdom, Meeting our friends with open ears, open eyes, and open hearts....

"For a time, I rest in the grace of the world and am free." —Wendell Berry In this time of meditation, may you rest in the grace of the world and be free. In weakness, may you sense the strength of the eternal hills, and rest in the grace of the world. In failure, may you be upheld like the...

God of goodness, you are the life of life, the breath of all, the eternal yet ever-changing wholeness into which infinity is poured and from which life is born anew. To you I offer myself, with you I simply am; as you I amaze myself with energy, compassion and calm....

We are in the midst of the season of celebration. Celebrations: Of the birth of new hope, Of the festival of lights, Of the triumph of freedom. The darkness of the year is lifting and the time of light grows longer. We have gathered with an anticipation of hope for peace on earth and in our homes.

Let us enter into a spirit of meditation. Much of our human struggle is with what we do not know or understand. It is often difficult not to want answers—or even more difficult, not to think we have them already. May we experience what we do not know not as an individual failure but as an...

"Dukkha," they say. The Buddhists say, "All is dukkha." It is hard to translate, they tell us. It means literally "suffering" but the feeling of dukkha is closer to impermanence. The fact of impermanence is central to the Buddhist path to nirvana, enlightenment. Dukkha. All is impermanence....