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The Death Walk

In last week’s blog, I shared about how I killed my Mum. I shot her with an arrow of truth, from my heart to hers….and it hit its mark. But it wasn’t her blood that I was feeling – it was my own. How do we watch someone who was once so strong and independent and dignified, become a walking corpse? How do we watch that, and not feel something moving deeply within our own Spirit. Watching Death begin its slow and grim dance for someone we love is not easy. This is powerful change at its most visceral level. I’m not saying that a swift death is necessarily easier. Unexpected death is a shock in its own right, and...

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I Killed My Mum

Last Friday, I killed my Mum. Not literally. She’s doing that under her own terms. But I shot an arrow at her with such focus and intention, that it penetrated through all the layers of mist and reached its target – her heart. The arrow was my words, conveyed with such powerful intensity that they would have penetrated even the thickest stone. Have you ever had that experience, either for yourself or witnessing it in someone else? So often, our mouth is disconnected from our Spirit. We talk – our lips flap around in the wind like a bird in flight, relaying our stories, our feelings, our opinions – but they are thrown into the wind with such little force,...

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Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

After serving as a surgeon in Vietnam at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he listened to hundreds of people talk about their lives – what works, what doesn’t, and the limitless ways that people find to be unhappy. He is also a parent twice bereaved; in one thirteen-month period he lost his eldest son to suicide, and his youngest to leukemia. Out of a lifetime of experience, Gordon Livingston decided to write a series of beautifully calibrated essays entitled ‘Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart’. These essays underscore that while there may be no escaping who we are, it is never too late to move beyond  loss, misfortune, or...

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Expectation is the Thief of Joy

I was pondering today how much grief we give ourselves through our expectations. When we think something is going to happen a certain way and it doesn’t, it paves the way for disappointment and resentment. We even feel totally justified in feeling this way, as if the rules of life were that things should always go the way we expect them to go. How often is this at the very core of disputes within relationships? We expect that someone will meet our needs in a particular aspect of life. We expect that they will be loyal to us, love us from head to toes, agree with the things that are most important to us….and when they don’t, we feel let...

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The Mysterious Atisha

      What would you do if you wanted to share about a great Tibetan Master, and you found two completely different accounts of his life? One account speaks directly to your heart, and is the story told by an enlightened master from India. The other is the academic version told in Wikipedia and other websites, which has been passed down from human to human, and which speaks to the intellect. Which story would you tell? The answer speaks for itself. None of us know the truth behind either story, however I am going to tell you the heart story, for hidden within this story are the keys to open the door of wisdom, a door buried not in...

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