Caroline’s alarm goes off early and she’s gone before I’m fully awake. I listen to the rain that has finally arrived. As soon as I begin to worry about her friend driving her to the mall, I know I cannot travel this path. This worry, so familiar, is no longer my friend. There’s so much […]
Category: Zen
The Daily Posting Continues…
I can’t log onto Facebook. I’ve managed to get myself locked out due to using two-factor identification and not being patient while waiting for passwords. This is a good thing. I had already started limiting my time to using it for work and no longer logging on after work or on weekends. But I wasn’t […]
Everything changes too fast.
Everything changes too fast. By Nancy Schatz Alton A friend asks me, ‘What’s it like to paddle board in the fog?’ She doesn’t know that my husband and I put the paddle board away in its winter home last night, atop the fishing boat. He might take the boat out again before spring. I might […]
The Battle
The Battle by Nancy Schatz Alton I am so full of light and dark and I do battle every day. I make a collage out of my world and pray the lightness wins. Lately I have dark, dark, dreams. But last night the end of my dreaming had a spark of light. I was watching […]
Making Pizza Dough
I make time to make dinner for my family even though I’ll be at work when they eat it. It’s the opposite of making them do things for themselves. It’s the ultimate in taking care of someone else even as anyone can argue that my family should take care of themselves. But this making dinner […]
Take In The Sky
I’m eating ice cream in my office. I have never done this before. Indulged, alone, during the work day, with ice cream. I mean, I’ve indulged with cheese puffs and chocolates, but never ice cream. I’m at a lull in work, two assignments handed in, waiting for edits. Six stories to research, at the very […]
Difficult And Lovely
It’s OK that things are difficult. It’s OK that it’s dark outside when you wake. It’s OK that another summer has passed, and your babies are young adults. It’s OK that the face in the mirror has sun spots that darken with the sunlight of summer. It’s OK that things are difficult. That human growth […]
August And Everything After
Hours after waking I recall that Aaron came to me in my dream. Sixteen years after his death. I have to count the years on my fingers, like I’m in second grade. Math brings me to the number, but in the dream he was younger than 31, less hairy, apologizing for not telling us he […]
The Miracle
This not knowing is as uncomfortable as the vinyl seats in my car on a 90-degree day. I’ve just spent a few hours with my mother-in-law. I’m driving home, back to my holy house, and only my dog is home. My husband is hunting gooey ducks, my eldest is camping with friends, my youngest is […]
Fear & Freckles
The years lay down a soundtrack that no one can fall asleep to. Isn’t that why Buddhists ask us to clear the mind? What do you want to believe? That all is suffering, or that each moment is new? When I take the time to really look at your freckles, I find the path out […]