I’ve been a fan of all things nautical my entire life. Bodies of water, and the vessels for traversing them, give me a sense of unending potential for exploring and creating. The sailboat in particular captures my fascination, harnessing wind and waves, to push through open water.In early 2016, I flew to Puerto Vallarta to…
Letting Go of Self-Improvement
“There’s a paradox with self-improvement, and it is this: the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself.” ~ Mark Manson My great aunt sat next to me in the back seat of the hearse. She dug a well-manicured thumbnail into the filter of…
Beauty as Inspiration
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius My pulse quickened as I walked into the Musée d’Orsay’s main hall, bathed in light from its stunning, Beaux-Arts, glass ceiling. I paused briefly to take in the architectural splendor and then anxiously walked toward the gallery…
The Provenance of Becoming
Be a provenance of something gathered, a summation of previous intuitions, let your vulnerabilities walking on the cracked sliding limestone be this time, not a weakness, but a faculty for understanding what’s about to happen.” ~ David Whyte, excerpt from “The Seven Streams” Every morning when I sit for meditation, get out my laptop to…
The Empath’s Guide to Protecting Creative Energy
If you walk in the mist, you get wet.” ~ Dogen, the great Zen master I threw up every day before school when I was in the first grade. I was painfully shy, very much an introvert, and afraid of just about everything and everyone. Oddly, though, I loved school—listening to what Ms. Brown was…
Read more about The Empath’s Guide to Protecting Creative Energy
The Trauma of Unused Creativity
He sat across from me in the booth, tucked in the far end of the diner. He pushed his salad around with his fork as he spoke, keeping his gaze from meeting mine. “I wake up, and it starts. I’m pretty good about getting going and getting busy before it really lands. When I get…
