Writing From the Middle of a Conversation You Didn’t Know We Were Having
I recently returned from a family trip to Italy. We visited Assisi, home of Saint Francis and his sidekick, Chiara, otherwise known as Clare, founder of the order of Poor Clares. She was the first woman to to write a…
Yikes: My Two-Cents on the The Zen Sex Scandals, published by the Weeklings
Some Personal Reflections on the Most Recent Zen Teacher Sex Scandal Bethany Saltman Thursday, March 21, 2013 IT WAS SPRING. I remember that. It might have even been Easter Sunday, the day after our brunch, when Dena called me….
This is My Baby-Cousin’s Chair…Take it Away, Mark Benedict!
(Art by Peter Brandstatter (1917-) My younger cousin, the blond on the far left of this Thanksgiving at Barothy Lodge family pic, on someone’s shoulders, is not so young anymore, and is graduating from Sarah Lawrence’s MFA program this spring….
Happy (so to speak) New Year
One day I came home from kindergarten and Happy was gone. I can’t remember what my parents said, but it was something about how it wasn’t working out. Happy, the Beagle pup, wasn’t taking to the housebreaking idea, and barked…
Praising the Lord for This Sick Day
I have spent so many years trying to cultivate gratitude, and occasionally it appears in my heart, unmistakably. This usually occurs in the dark, in silence, in the middle of a sesshin (a silent meditation retreat that lasts up to…
Holy Humiliating: The Day I Took My Husband to My Tennis Lesson (Part Two)
{Art from ScrapHacker.com} My next tennis lesson, since The Incident, is tomorrow. I am nervous to see my coach. Why? Because last time I saw him I was fighting back tears, barely able to move on the court, purposely laming…
Holy Humiliating: The Day I Took My Husband to my Tennis Lesson (Part One)
I have done so many dumb things in my life I could start a new blog for each category of stupid (risky behaviors I did for men, e.g. tattoos, breaking and entering, etc.; things I quit and the lame reasons…
The World’s Most Famous Bored Lady
Yesterday, Sunday, T spent all morning at the monastery, where he runs the Zen Teens program with another senior student (and friend of ours). Azalea slept until 10 (!) and then played with a friend. I figured, hey, if they…
Anything Else?
I have been reading the 200 page transcript that Tom L. from Australia posted online from the six years when he and Joko did dokusan, or face to face teaching, over the phone, something she did a lot. It is…
What’s That Burning Flesh Smell? Oh, Right. I’ve Been Branded: Part Two
So the voice, which I am coming to think of more and more, as God, said: “Get a Volvo.” I listened. I have a Volvo, a 2004 Cross Country Wagon with 100,000 miles on it. It cost $8,000, and once…
