There’s a wonderful Japanese word, komorebi, that is usually translated as “dappled sunlight.” That seems accurate enough, but like a lot of translations, it’s not really complete. The characters for this word represent tree, sun, and to leak – trees leaking sunlight. Yesterday I was reveling in the komorebi, and realized that just a few […]

  I looked up this week to see a huge outline of a hawk, silhouetted in the bright spring sky. It was moving in unusual small circles, and after squinting a moment I saw the tiny shadow following behind it, a baby hawk learning to fly! Friends, it was not at all graceful. The little […]

It’s planting time again.   I’m typing this with hands that are cramped-up from weed pulling, dirt under my nails, knuckles scraped up by thorns, and a wide grin on my face. It’s easy to adore planting season, with all of its promise of growth and harvests to come. What’s tougher is the long arc of […]

In all natural things there is something marvelous.   – Aristotle   Beekeeping involves constant cycles of heartbreak and hope, just like all of life. This week I drove up north to pick up two buzzing mesh boxes, each with about ten thousand bees inside – all sadly needed after the harsh winter. There is […]

Friends, this morning an oblivious fellow passenger cut me off in the TSA line, and words cannot describe the intensity of my sudden inner fury. Surely this is not the sign of a spirit at peace, one with the universe. Like lots of us, I am sometimes surprised by how riled up I am, barely […]

“Remove your shores.”   I recently heard this description of a sign at the door of a meditation space, where a fortuitous typo shifted a simple commandment (“remove your shoes”) to a more mystical invitation (“remove your shores”). Dear ones, we operate in so many settings where the opposite occurs. Our grandest ambitions are squashed […]

Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And worse than that, the more deeply it goes the less complete it is.       – Clifford Geertz   What a delight to hear Clifford Geertz referenced in an academic talk this week! His commentary on cultural analysis was one of the first reading assignments I had at […]

I spent this past week surrounded by brilliant, provocative, important ideas. My notebook is stuffed full of quotes, my mind is reeling with sparkly new connections – these are my favorite kinds of overwhelm.  From this ocean of fascinating content, a surprising thread emerged. Despite my love of brain-first adventure, despite my attending this gathering […]

  Finally, finally, Boston is abloom. I passed an azalea this week so pink it made me laugh out loud. Then a friend mentioned a decidedly non-conventional stock idea. Another told a story they’d been keeping in for quite some time. A third brought me to tears with a heartfelt hug. Things are busting out […]