Good Clean Reads

“The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind.” –...

“For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The lunar eclipse taking place tonight on the solstice beginning will not be witnessed again until sometime in the 2400s. Celebrating the incoming light and the wonder of living on earth in these remarkable life changing times...

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means, what I want, and what I fear.” -Joan Didion

This daily discipline of coming to terms with my daily life and myself in its midst could be called an exercise in self awareness. I have recognized more of myself – both the flaws and the gifts of who I am from this year of writing than probably any other...

“In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else.” ~Alison Rose Levy, “An Ancient Cure for Modern Life”

The Buddhists celebrate the great fortune of being born into a human body. It is a divine experience actually to have five senses awake in world that has a magically huge range of sights, smells, tastes,...

"When it's over, I want to say:All my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. "-Mary OliverEvery now and again we are given the gift of true presence. Usually it is when we are faced with the stark realization of the fragility of life: the moment of loss or the miraculous reprieve. This is when our gratitude for a...

“Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.”  ~Confucius

Choosing how to live doesn’t happen in what we esteem to be the big decisions in life, rather it is the small collection of habits we develop that define our thinking, our actions and ultimately our character. One of the great challenges of living a quality human life is that it is both easier to develop bad habits than...

“Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.” ~Vilfredo Pareto

As the last days of the positivity quest dwindle to a close, I thought I would use as many of the remaining posts as possible to outline the foundations of creating a positive life. I will be looking for the major thematic units that have woven the...

“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.” -Bernard Baruch

Here are the facts that I am working to reconcile: first I have never been as clear and confident about what I have to offer the world as I am in these days and second as good as it feels to embrace the vision, the weight of the responsibility has been a little debilitating. As I was interviewing a...

“Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.”  -Turkish proverb

There is nothing like injury or illness to wake us up to our own fragility. Our bodies at once so strong and capable are also remarkably fragile. Health and vitality, which seems so natural a state when we are in its midst is just as equally tenable. Of late, my body is not quite able to keep up with the...