Musings on inner and outer sustainability
Sanity in a world of duality
There are many ways to sustain a sense of balance in a world of duality and anger. Personal Balance is about the three-dimensional relationship between mind, body and spirit. It is not about right or wrong, but about noticing if you are heavy in one area and offering nourishment to any area that needs more of your energy. If you find yourself busy most of the time, you may be dominant in masculine and find meditation and aimless time in nature to be your balancing point. If you are mellow and relaxed, you may be centered in a more feminine...
read moreWanderer, by Antonio Machado
Wanderer, the road is your footsteps, nothing else; wanderer, there is no path, you lay down a path in walking. In walking you lay down a path and when turning around you see the road you’ll never step on again. Wanderer, path there is none, only tracks on ocean foam. ~ Antonio Machado (translated by Francisco...
read moreMeditation on the fragile self
“You enter the brain through the eye, march up the optic nerve, round and round the cortex, looking behind every neuron, and then before you know it, you emerge into daylight on the spike of a motor nerve impulse, scratching your head and wondering where the self is” ~ Daniel Dennett How would you say who you are? What is your identity? Observe yourself and see if you can grasp yourself. Where are you? Where is your identity? Can you point to where your identity is in your body? Stay still. Don’t move. Don’t change. How do you feel?...
read moreMy empty self
I am a fragile self, constantly emerging, flowing and transforming through micro worlds…ready… In this moment I am the sum of all parts of the universe, yet diverse from all parts too in my relationship to all else. My full reality is contained within my immediate vicinity. My entire nature is contained in a single moment of attention. My story is inextricably tied to every other story; I don’t exist without relationship. And my story has yet to be told as such truth waits to know words of expression. In every instant I am fresh....
read moreHow to harness your fears
Sleeping alone in the wild, one comes face to face with fears. Namely, the fear of creatures in the night. Routt National Forest is home to bears, mountain lions, scorpions, and rattlesnakes, all of which I was acutely attuned to during my three night solo in the woods. Before my cohort and I set out for our own solo adventures, we shared what these fears looked like with the group. Many expressed the fear of being alone in the dark, and the fear of encountering a wild animal. I was certainly among this camp. One of our guides shared a...
read moreWhy can’t science and spirituality just get along?
Science and spirituality have long struggled to find common ground. Nevertheless, a common language exists between these powerful fields that may unlock a means for peace and connective understanding. This key is called by many names, but its essence is constant. It is the balance of energy. There is a form that unites the whole universe. Christianity calls it the trinity. Chemistry calls it protons, neutrons and electrons. Living systems display it as destruction, creation, and relationship. Physics calls it matter, motion and energy....
read moreOde to Francisco Varela
I’ve got the hots for Francisco Varela. The Chilean scientist introduced the concept of including mindfulness meditation into scientific inquiry. He knew that we influence that which we study, and therefore we cannot be truly separate from the subject of our inquiry. There is always an element of influence. His big work was developing the concept of autopoiesis, the systems theory that an organism is always self-creating in relationship with its environment. Thus, there is no solid, material self, but rather a self that is constantly...
read moreBeing in Nature: An Integration of Mind, Body, and Spirit
I spent three days by myself in the wilderness with only three gallons of water and a hammock. Here is a reflection of my inner work during that time.
read moreDon’t Escape With Someone Else’s Goat
What I love goats, and what I learned about relationships from goat behavior.
read moreHeart Melting
Today marks a spring into new life. I have already marked many false starts of warm days, and felt the effects of warming in our atmosphere beginning to show. In the reality of change, I am aware of a subtle melting that doesn’t appear in my immediate perception. Thanks to National Geographic photographer James Balog and his work documenting glaciers in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, and Montana, I have a better vision for the effects of global warming. Balog’s curiosity about the interaction between humans and nature led him on...
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