General

How does a four-day retreat in the French Pyrenees sound? I would love nothing more than to share a few days with you this coming February. We will be guests at La Ciboulette, a tranquil inn with lovely en-suite double bedrooms, a welcoming dining room with an open fireplace and a gorgeous meditation room. We…

I am just back from my morning swim, and I have to tell you what happened. I was presented with a writing prompt too perfect to pass over. That topic would be fear. What makes it even more interesting is that the topic of fear has come up several times in different ways this week.…

From the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we settle in at the end of the day, we are afforded so many authentic places to practice. Every experience of hardship provides fertile ground in which we can root our practice. — Justin von Bujdoss, “Ask a Teacher” This beautiful, everyday life…

Every morning, between 7:30 and 8 a.m., I sit on the steps that lead into the San Marcos River, put on my fins and goggles, and head upstream. Returning downstream, I’m often asked how far I made it, and my answer is always this: “As far as the river and I could agree on today.”…

“The odd thing about these deep and personal connections of women is that they often ignore barriers of age, economics, worldly experience, race, culture — all the barriers that, in male or mixed society, had seemed so difficult to cross.”  — Gloria Steinem In a recent conversation with my dear friend Christine, I shared a…

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.” – Paulo Coelho We are all on a journey, and each day presents unique opportunities for growth. Some journeys move you physically to distant lands. Some move you mentally through ideas, thoughts…

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain This has served as my motto for at least the last two decades. It continues to serve me in the face of my own fears, lines from old stories,…

“Destiny’s interventions can sometimes be read as an invitation for us to address and even surmount our biggest fears.” – Elizabeth Gilbert   Sometimes, invitations can challenge our fears. Right now, I have received an invitation that has been developing over nine months in bits and pieces. For some time, I did my best to politely…

She was 97 and still tended her rose garden ⁠— her namesake Hortensia bushes, the berry brambles and fruit trees that filled the steeply terraced lot behind the house. Getting up and down those stone steps certainly took effort these days ⁠— but oh, that view was remarkable. Hortense loved this home as much as…

Let me be honest here. On the bucket list of places I’d like to visit in my lifetime, Ukraine was never near the top. Actually, it wasn’t even in the top 100. Absolutely no offense intended, but there was never a real curiosity, and after the unrest in 2015 any chances it had were pretty…