What puts people at ease? The Practice: Give no one cause to fear you. Why? We evolved to be afraid. The ancient ancestors that were casual and blithely hopeful, underestimating the risks around them - predators, loss of food, aggression from others of their kind - did not pass...
How to live in peace with each other? The Practice: Tell the Truth and Play Fair Why? Perhaps like you, I’ve been worrying lately about what it will take for all of us to live together in peace. I remember what I’ve heard many teachers say to their students: Tell...
What do you do when the bottom falls out? Take heart. By "taking heart," I mean several related things: Sensing your heart and chest, finding encouragement in what is good both around you and inside you, resting in your own warmth, compassion, and ...
There's been mistreatment or injustice - now what? The Practice: Stay right when you're wronged. Why? It’s easy to treat people well when they treat you well. The real test is when they treat you badly. (Much of what I say here applies to concerns about injustice or...
What's changing? The Practice: Let Things Change Why? The fifth of my personal Top 5 practices (all tied for first place) is open out, by which I mean relaxing into a growing sense of connection, even oneness, with all things. "Opening out" can sound kind of airy-fairy or...
Love is like air. It may be hard to see - but it's in you and all around you....
What would make a difference inside you? The Practice: Grow Inner Strengths. Why? I've hiked a lot and have often had to depend on what was in my pack. Inner strengths are the supplies you've got in your pack as you make your way down the twisting...
What doesn’t rust? The Practice: Enjoy the good that lasts. Why? So many things change. Leaves fall, friends move away, children leave home. My dad died a year ago, and my mom about ten years before that. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting older (darn, there is...
