Good Clean Reads

by Anastasia Strgar

If today were the last day that you ever had on this earth, who would you want to be with? What would you tell them? And would anything that may happen really matter?

As human beings with advanced technologies and complex brains that are both blessings and curses, it’s easy for us to take this life for granted. It starts with little things… We take our daily cleansing rituals...

Some days all I can see is the mess around me. Conflicting needs, insufficient resources and a will only to rest. The question is can I find the grace in the mess instead of getting swept up in feeling daunted and overwhelmed? The beauty of life is still apparent even when things are falling apart.

How we think when things are not going as we’d hope or worse still, when things fall apart in ways...

by Anastasia Strgar

Back in the day, girls were sent to college to find a husband. Once they did that, their entire lives revolved around taking care of their husband and their families. Their identities became grouped with their husband’s and they never really had a chance to develop their own identities. Flash forward 60 years to the “Me Generation.”

Today, girls are told to go to college and...

“When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.” – Stephen Hawking

Coming home from time away is one of the quickest routes to realizing just how lovely your daily life can be. Even the smallest of details in life, like washing your dogs has a kind of tenderness that is easy to overlook. The truth is that it is the most familiar pieces of our life...

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be….To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go.”  -Lao Tzu

There might not be another word in the English language that evokes as much opening, tenderness and possibility as release. On an emotional level, the ability to let go is the essence of what real intimacy is made from. Our human longing to hold onto those we love must mature if it is...

“By letting it go it all gets done.  The world is won by those who let it go.  But when you try and try, the world is beyond the winning.”  -Lao Tzu

I am committed to leaning into the art of receiving. It is new territory for me and ironically one of the things that seems to come most clear from this early stage of practice is how essential it is to let go. It is not by holding onto anything that...

“Reality is gentle and beautiful when you lean in close.”   -Betty Peralta

I was practicing The Work by Byron Katiethe other day, trying to see into the places where my thinking keeps me trapped in my own discomfort. In addition to applying the basic questions that most of our thoughts deserve, what was most remarkable about the conversation was the realization of how many of my beliefs have come...

by Anastasia Strgar

It is a common misconception that a broken heart can only result from a breakup. In fact, if we allow our hearts to be open, they open not only to the beauty and joy of life, but also to the utter tragedy of it all. Our hearts can break not only from romantic breakups, but also from loss, sadness unexamined, and the ups and downs of our day to day life. As far as love is...

“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.”   -Albert Schweitzer

I have...