Somewhere, along the way, I learned that Plato had no formal curriculum. He was simply exploring deep questions of living with fellow seekers. He actually had no place to gather, when he inherited a grove of olive trees from an uncle who had died. He began to walk with those…

Something beats inside the soul, the way the heart beats inside our chest. While the mind plays its melodies, the beat inside returns us to whatever it is we think we have lost. This is the tuning fork of the sacred by which we find our way. I felt it…

What We See When our Eyes Are Closed The things we can’t see feed us, the way the soil feeds the rose, the way the wind lifts the hawk, the way the deep pillows the jellyfish. Yet in our insecurity, we insist we’ve done it all. When nothing — from…

The leaf twirled this way and that and finally landed on the pond like the one thought, after all my suffering, that cleared my mind. You happened to look at me with all your love at just that moment and we understood each other. No matter the conflict or mis- understanding, we see through to the bottom together. This makes the fall into life bearable. From my book of poems in progress, Elsewhere.

Perhaps all beauty is in the dab of taste on the tongue. Perhaps we can’t see everything until we enter the smallest thing. Perhaps the pianist, head down, eyes closed, plays the same rumble of notes, over and over, until he falls into the canyon of emptiness from which all…

We often live like shadows, suffering from stories never told and songs never sung. Though, even shadows vanish with enough light. And truth remains a perception revealed by time. To live a full life, we are called to participate in everything, while accepting that we control nothing. So, with nothing left to say, I explore the wonder in silence and try to net the stars with thoughts of the beginning.

We have shed many skins, always working toward some uncovered state: below opinion, below expectation, even below the exhilaration of a dream. All to accept that shedding is a way of life. Going out builds up. Going in takes off. And we go on. Despite the pain of taking off…

A cramp of conscience can bring us to our knees, and a grip of pain can keep us from our true nature. Yet as one bit of color can bring the eye to the center of a painting, one bit of truth can restart the heart. From The Half-Life of…

Sometimes, when things break, life begins. It still hurts. But when the egg cracks, the chick is born. When the dam breaks, the fields finally grow. And when the heart breaks, the angels asleep for a hundred years unfurl their wings and flutter behind our eyes, letting us see everything…