Category Archives: Self Reflection

Finding My Way Back to Courage

At the turn of the new year in 2016, I resolved to live more mindfully, and in January I joined a local meditation group. A year and some months later, the group still meets every other week, is facilitated by a super competent, compassionate and knowledgeable guy who earns his living as a hypnotherapist. We spendContinue reading “Finding My Way Back to Courage”

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Last year, I remember talking in my classroom about the terrible news, the deaths of two British cultural icons, both personal heroes of mine, David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both dead at 69. And from that discussion, this has remained in my memory: a student actually said these words to me, “So you’ve got about twentyContinue reading “Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light”

Mindfulness in 2016: A Reflection

Here’s the new year’s resolution I settled into last year: I resolve in 2016 to be more mindful, to find opportunities daily for meditation practice, and to seek out a community, some companionship on the journey. I wonder how I did. Let’s look, shall we? Two years ago I bought an application for my stupidContinue reading “Mindfulness in 2016: A Reflection”

#237: Off Air (a Haiku Followed by Two Lengthy Postscripts)

I will go one day without Facebook, internet news. See what happens. Postscript: I wrote this poem several days ago, thinking I would post it that evening and begin the next morning as a single day without Facebook and internet news. That did not happen. I’ve been sitting on this one and I find that especially worrisome.Continue reading “#237: Off Air (a Haiku Followed by Two Lengthy Postscripts)”

#236: Media Fast, Anyone?

I cannot help it. I can’t look away. It’s a train wreck, a complete cluster, and every morning begins with the same question: What’s the outrage of the day? And now that I’m on a holiday break I’ve got something like free time to keep checking in on the downfall of my civilization. I thinkContinue reading “#236: Media Fast, Anyone?”

#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating

(for Scott) Walking the dog, focusing on the breath, in and out, in rhythm with my step, my digital meditation bell ticking away for twenty-five minutes inside my pocket, suddenly I realize that I am missing group meditation. I have to breathe more deeply through the frustration I feel for my forgetful self, meditating and forgettingContinue reading “#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating”

#230: A Poem of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, America. Here’s a skinny but long list of things for which I am grateful: It’s not January. I could do without the heavy rain making a mud bath of the lawn, but at least, the leaves are finally out of the yard. My son is healthy and, as far as I can tell, happy.Continue reading “#230: A Poem of Gratitude”

A Single Dispatch from Writer’s Camp on the 40th Anniversary of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College

First of all, I was sick with a cold when at 10:30 pm I boarded the plane for a red-eye from Portland to Atlanta, a nearly five hour flight through most of which I would be sneezing and blowing and stuffing kleenex into my own private trash bag that I kept discreetly stuffed into theContinue reading “A Single Dispatch from Writer’s Camp on the 40th Anniversary of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College”

Mindfulness in 2016: A Silver Bullet Resolution?

On this New Year’s Eve morning I spent some time reading the blog entry I wrote exactly one year ago today, “Mindfulness in 2015: A Silver Bullet Resolution.”  I liked what I read.  That’s a nice blog post, I said to myself.  I was proud of it, proud of the writing and of the sentimentContinue reading “Mindfulness in 2016: A Silver Bullet Resolution?”