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Last week we noticed wasps buzzing around part of the deck of our home, flying up and down through the spaces between the planks. Going down under the deck I...

The greater part of the year I live in far northern Idaho, fifty miles from Canada. It has been my home for over forty years. Most of the land is forest, when...

The Japanese house is known for a lack of clutter, helping to create a sense of calmness in the householder and the visitor alike. We often think that the...

It is now the halfway point, equal distance between the equinox and the solstice, and the first snow has come to our home in the north country. Night before...

We often hear or read the famous Latin phrase, memento mori, remember death. Used as a greeting by the hermits of Saint Paul in the 1600’s, it is now found in...

Most of what I write in this blog revolves around two themes, the first, nature and the natural world. The second, living a spiritual life in the midst of...

Inflammation is now known to be a contributing cause for many different health issues, and methods to reduce inflammation are finding their way into...

Fifty years ago I would backpack into the Sierra Nevada mountains, often returning to my favorite place there, Kings Canyon park. One could drink from the...

Everything is there, waiting. Of course we’re usually oblivious, doing what humans do so well, creating layer after layer of thought that occludes the real...

Living most of the year here in the mountains, I am reminded every day that I and my kind are not the only inhabitants...

Through some special combination of effort, grace and karma it may come to pass that a remarkable teacher comes into our lives. I am not referring to our...

The snow is falling, it has been falling for several days now. Traffic moves at half speed and even so the cars slide in slow motion into the ditches, their...

Obligation is one of those words that comes with a lot of heaviness. When I think of obligation there is usually a sense of something that is forced on me...

Most of the trees on our land are natives; aspens and cedars and two large old ponderosa pines, looking down on all the rest. We also have a katsura tree, not...

Most of us would say that love is the greatest of all human emotions, whether it might be romantic love, love of family, or love of country. In thinking about...

I was buying a few groceries at the local market last month and was engaged in a pleasant conversation with a young cashier. As I was swiping my credit card...

The ancient practice of mindfulness is having its day in social media and in our culture at large. Googling the term, I encountered dozens of advertisements...

I recently read that a scientist has measured electrical pulses being sent out by mushrooms through their mycelium, which is their interconnected root...

The two Sufis were again seated beneath one of the great Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley, facing out towards a large assembly who had gathered to hear...

Many years ago I visited the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi peoples in Mesa Verde National Park. When the park ranger explained that archaeologists have...

Yesterday I read that some birds in the Amazon rain forest are shrinking in size, and have been over the last 40 years.The scientists studying the birds...

It is a misunderstanding to think that prayer is an activity, or a proscribed form practiced within the context of a particular religion. In our moments of...

My companion first appeared when I was only a year old and in the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. He lingered there by my side for two or three...

The understanding that everything; humans, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, everything that is here existing; is spiritualized, that everything has a...

We think of time, as measured by the hands of a clock and the pages of a calendar, as being the real time. It is true, in a way, but it is not true, in...

“Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying...”     — Socrates Memento mori, "remember death,” was the salutation exchanged by...

We pay special attention to the solstice, and, based on places like Stonehenge in Britain, human beings have been especially cognizant of the winter and...

The phrase, may you have fair winds and following seas, is a toast commonly given to a mariner about to embark on a lengthy sea voyage. For a steady wind...

There are a group of crows here where we live. I don’t know if they are a family, or just crows that are living on the same piece of land, but they appear to...

Hierarchy is a word that comes with a lot of baggage these days, calling up thoughts of privilege, inequality, unfairness, abuse, and the list goes on. The...

In life repetition is seen as a necessary precondition to mastery. A basketball player spends hundreds or even thousand of hours shooting foul shots in...

After quite a few years I have come to believe that living life well is much simpler than I had always imagined. The recipe for living life well each day is a...

This post is somewhat different from the others. Perhaps it doesn’t belong on this blog; I’m not sure. I’ll let you be the judge of that. Let me know. Even as...

It seems that very often expressions of love, or what we might call love, are intertwined with an element of some sort of transaction. This idea is probably...

The image above is of what may be the oldest known carpet, the Pazkyryk rug, perhaps 2500 years old. A substantial part is missing, but most of it remains,...

“I can be infinitely more relaxed than I am.” William Segal Over the years I have come to see that what I need is not more, but less. Not effort, but letting...

These last few days I have been thinking about this land, from the point of view of what might be special about this place on which we live. The settlement of...

(Photo: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/coronavirus-deaths-by-country.html)     I walked out the front door early this morning. Outside...

Recently I was asked to consider what it might mean to be a friend of another. Simple enough, I thought. Upon reflection I realized that it is, for me, very...

It was summer fifteen years ago that my son and I went on a road trip. He had just turned sixteen and had gotten his drivers license only a few weeks before,...

Take part in a celebration of the return of the sun by listening to the wonderful creation story, "Raven Steals the Light."   This narration is from the...

The wise ones, the sages and savants, have held forth over many centuries, arguing the question, is it through immanence or through transcendence that the...

Last week I suffered a small stroke. Called a TIA, or ministroke, it heals itself, and I am fine now. When I was in the hospital, going through the protocols,...

Like many others around the world, I have been “Greta’d.” Because of Greta Thunberg, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of us, have been forced to...

I imagine most of us would agree that the adage “less is more” has a lot of merit. Some of us might follow the lead of Marie Kondo, the Japanese author who...

What does a seeker need?  Perhaps two things are paramount. The first is a deep wish. It is the sense in one’s life that something is missing,...

The eminent biologist, E.O. Wilson, has proposed a Latin name Eremocene, which translated means “The Age of Loneliness,” for the coming time in which human...

pon·der (/ˈpändər/), verb: think about, give thought to, consider, review, reflect on, mull over, contemplate, study, meditate on, muse on,...

Last night my wife mentioned that she had seen a fox down the hill near a small seasonal stream that runs through our land. She spoke about its color and its...

Most likely many things mattered a lot when we were young. Finding our way through the world, whether you want to call it becoming successful or...

Early this morning I was sitting in the kitchen. It was nothing special, simply drinking a cup of coffee and considering the change of seasons. At...

For a long time, likely many years, to simply bring the attention to the present moment, seeing oneself as one is, working with a relaxed body, a...

Those who have made peace inside themselves and are no longer living lives in the dark, muttering to themselves of imagined slights and small...

There are my everyday emotions. They take up most of the space that is contained within my heart.  The full gamut. Happiness, sadness, anger,...

The words of Thomas Wolfe, "You Can’t go Home Again," takes on a truth that is informed by one’s own life experience as one ages. Parents have, if...

If I look, not as I almost always look, but if I look at anything, anything at all, and if I hold that real look, mind quiet, just allowing the...

I need to desire less and less from life. Not only material possessions, but fewer experiences, fewer gratifications, less praise. Even the need to do good...

A magnifying glass could be used to start a fire, if the conditions were right and one knew how to use it. Where I live the light of the sun is...

Everything, every substance, every material object, everything, including feelings and thoughts and emanations, whether known or unknown to the human mind, is...

It is late. I sit in front of the fire and recollect the day. I remembered to be polite to the checkout clerk. I gave no thought to the fact that I was able...

When I am in connection with an energy that appears from above all of the parts of myself obey. The thoughts of the mind are stilled. I do not try to quiet...