Dispatches from Morocco, Part II
My two weeks in Morocco have been overflowing with new sights, aromas and insights into myself and the world around me. Splashes of color, care and sacredness touch everything, from shapes of doorways to the placement of buildings and the flavors of food. I keep diving deeper into the aesthetic around elaborate inner spaces, both…
Writing Naked
The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked… that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right. Neil Gaiman Two years ago, when I first ‘came out of the closet’ as a writer, I hired a moderately well known memoirist as my teacher. As the…
Disturbance
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. – William Shakespeare in Hamlet My teacher used to tell a story about living in a yurt with an outhouse. Each time he would go to the bathroom, upon opening the door, he would destroy the intricate spider web built by the…
From a Teacher’s Heart
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” – Audre Lorde It can be so easy to believe that it all depends upon the purity of the vessel holding the information. That passing through our inevitably…
Secondhand Enlightenment
My best friend started losing his hair. During the two decades we’ve known each other, his hair has been a constant source of concern for him, but recently the process accelerated. In response, he lopped it all off. The odd thing is that I’ve also noticed a shift in his personality to accompany his new…
Art-n-Soul Retreat: Centering and Creativity
An artist and a yoga teacher walk into a bar… “Red wine for me”, says the artist, “and a martini for my friend here.” I’m tired, they both say with their eyes. “My life needs more color”, says the teacher. “What do you think of covering ourselves in body paint and ecstatic dancing on a…
I Am From…
Guest post by Sofi Ayling, age 10. I am from… I am from yoga mats From tea and herbs I am from the purple door Fuzzy PJs and organic food I am from daddy’s Japanese garden The dead chipmunk who I miss with all my heart I am kindness and wisdom From Ralphy…
Declaration
I found it recently – a picture of me, off in the distance, my wispy white blouse slightly lifted by the soft breeze, arms raised holding my brand new camera and attempting to capture the river, the trees, and the sunset beautifying our evenings. The woman in that photo looks like the real deal, I…
About Last Night…
About last night… Provocative, right? That was the subject line of a recent email I sent… to a client… the morning after a session. No sex organs were involved in our work, which centered around love, spirituality AND sexuality. In my decades working in the corporate world, and even in my 5 years as a…
Assimilation, Integration, Expression
The pursuit of blending in was an obsessive reality of my first few decades. As a Caribbean immigrant of successful parents, I fit neither into the urban neighborhood where we began, or the rich white suburbs we moved to. I changed the shape of my body, the way I spoke, my interests and personality as…