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January 7, 2011“Oh, holy smokes!” I interrupted Mary in the middle of our conversation. After more than a month, we had finally...
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November 15, 2010We sat on the shore of the river looking down at a wide bank covered with slabs of rock. The...
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August 13, 2010I found a book in an old box that made me realize what the last three years of my life...
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June 25, 2010Your body carries a record of your past experiences, some deep and old and intense, but the past no longer...
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June 17, 2010In Tibet, they believe that it is possible to foresee, at the beginning of a relationship, how it will unfold,...
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May 30, 2010Mental imagery of the social landscape is just mental imagery. What do you have and hold when you love?
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April 30, 2010Is your heart heavy today? I could feel its weight just as the clouds began to fill the sky. A...
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April 28, 2010If you ask for healing, watch your thoughts. Sometimes the divine speaks with our own inner voice.
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April 19, 2010Forgiveness and redemption are healing, but you can still find wholeness even when others cannot offer it.
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April 13, 2010The divine is always accessible. We don’t need to become perfect first in order to enter.
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March 29, 2010On the paradox of finding wholeness and redemption in the fact that we make mistakes.
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March 28, 2010 Beautiful quotes from a fellow traveler.
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March 5, 2010Periods of strain can erode your strength and test your faith in life, but there are ways to approach them...
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Below are accounts of awakening (e.g., satori, moksha, nirvana, enlightenment) reprinted from various sources, such as Zen Flesh, Zen Bones,...
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February 17, 2010An integration of Zen emptiness with New Age form offers one approach to healing our collective samsara.
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February 14, 2010 If you are beset by a negative self-image, especially one that is self-fulfilling and reflected back to you by others...
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January 27, 2010When there is no way to make things right, love and courage illuminate what never falls apart.
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December 17, 2009Among the most excruciating suffering one can endure is social death. Where does compassion fit in?
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December 4, 2009 An essay by Noel McNaughton on how seemingly difficult people enable us to cultivate true compassion.
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In an era of waning social ties, sensitivity to rejection is common. An article in Psychology Today offers solutions.
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November 25, 2009I have watched the movie You’ve Got Mail every week for two months. One might think I find it appealing...
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November 9, 2009Certain needs tend to evoke emotional responses that make the situation worse in a way that aggravates the need, which...
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November 6, 2009 I want to contact that which is real in others, but the meeting of minds never lasts. The souls who...
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Waking Heart is a collection of personal essays, articles, and videos about love, relationships, and emotion in the domain of...
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October 30, 2009When weeks of grief and turmoil are broken by a neutral calm, the relief is welcome, but the journey is...
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October 29, 2009 In his book, I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter proposes that the essence or soul of a person can...
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October 27, 2009Some relationships end with a clean break, and others end slowly, the way a garden reaches its final days. ...
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October 26, 2009The ways of love include silence and solitude, parting and disharmony–so deep its trust in the core of light within...
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MeditationsOctober 26, 2009 Following is a list of the specific meditation practices that have worked well for me in the past. In particular,...
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October 26, 2009Why it feels so impossible to have compassion for those who cause injury or evoke repulsion and how to reconcile...
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Sacred AlchemyOctober 8, 2009 No causal chain of events can turn lead into gold. The sacred alchemy lies in transcending our ordinary mode...
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A Love Story?October 5, 2009 The greatest love story is not about getting everything you want or creating feelings of union, but cherishing the well...
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Sunday night, I lay in the grass by the lake watching the sun set behind a line of thick trees...
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Accepting who you are is like recognizing the value of a cat even if you are a dog lover.
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The struggle between loving and wanting to be loved is delicate and sometimes confusing but ultimately rife with beautiful life...
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I have occassionally caught myself using shopping metaphors for dating and romance. It’s not surprising that consumerism, the predominant lifestyle...
Written by an embodiment psychologist, Zen Buddhist, and single mother, "Waking Heart" is a diary of synchronicities, lessons both learned and forgotten, accidental awakenings, and the cultivation of love.