Writing with Heart

"Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth."

This quote from Pema Chodron is today's WORDS CHANGE US.

Pema's words feel true to me. They reflect my own experience.

Where there's fear, there's heat, and something to look at.

I was 51 years old and,admittedly, stricken by both doubt and...

Tonight's WORDS CHANGE US comes from "This Is Water" by the late David Foster Wallace. I think these words speak for themselves. What do you worship?

"Here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such...

Tonight's WORDS THAT CHANGED ME comes from a modern spiritual classic, "The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda.

Here it is:

"Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use."

I've liked this quote since I first read it in the late 1990s.

Back then, I...

The only book I took to Greenland in 1996 was Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams. One day, during a three-week hiatus in a tiny coastal village, I took off on foot to see the Icecap. I hiked up a broad, grassy valley past lichen-covered stone ruins until it dead-ended at a rock outcropping. I followed a...

Tonight's THESE WORDS CHANGED ME come from the Buddhist maitri practice. Maitri means lovingkindness in Sanskrit. Here are the words:

May I be filled with lovingkindness.

May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May I be well in body and mind.

May I be peaceful and happy.

May I be free.

Some...

Today's THESE WORDS CHANGED ME come from Austrian poet Ranier Maria Rilke, whose name I always butcher when I say it out loud.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very...

Today's THESE WORDS CHANGED ME comes from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. 

After days of listening to the Buddha's teachings, Siddhartha, a wanderer seeking enlightenment, encounters The Awakened One in a grove.

And guess what he does?

He gives the Great One a piece of his mind!

Here's what he...

WORDS CHANGE US

I submitted my memoir to agents. The book's working title is: Shiva Blues: A Seeker's Journey.
It's about travel, kicking an addiction to strong pharmaceuticals, and trying to live against the grain of American Big Alpha toxic masculinity...but, primarily, the book is about personal...

I was in my mid-thirties and quite depressed when I first stumbled on a recording of Alan Watts' unique style of spiritual entertainment. Within a few minutes, I was chuckling out loud and had forgotten I was depressed.

These days, I no longer suffer from depression, and Watts' recordings still...

Today, I woke up and re-listened to President-Elect Joe Biden’s speech from last night. I was struck by how reasonable and measured he sounded. How open he is to listening to and leading all Americans. How ready he is to be the facilitator-in-chief of real healing. At first, his words and...

I found this B&W print today while unpacking from my recent move. I was 30 years old, flying out the next day for Greenland and my first overseas adventure-writing assignment for a major magazine. I reported the article and then found myself camped out for three weeks on a beach socked in by...