HAPPY 2021! I want to share “Swan” by Mary Oliver for the new year. This powerful poem by Mary Oliver is about being present and about change. That might sound like a paradox: how can we both be present and invite change? For a long time, I struggled with...
One of the hardest things we do as writers is balance our writing and the rest of our lives. There are all the practical aspects: how to make time for writing in our already very busy lives? How do we fit writing into our life if we also need to earn money? There is...
I’ve been lucky to spend the past ten days out of the city, spending less time on my computer. We’re renting a house on a lake in Maine and yesterday as I was swimming, a huge bird flew above me, circling and circling, flapping its enormous, graceful wings that seem...
Monday was Martin Luther King Day—it was very cold and I stayed inside, baked some bread, spent some time with Eric and Simone, worked on an essay, and had dinner with some friends. All day, I was also thinking about the legacy of Dr. King, who is such a model of how...
This happens to me every year: suddenly, without my knowing quite how it happened, it’s the holiday season again. The days are getting darker, and I wonder where all the time has gone. Life passes so quickly! It’s a challenge to keep up, to pay attention and to...
I was away last week at a silent Vipassana retreat in Western Mass. For three days, we meditated at least 10 hours a day and had very few external stimuli. In meditation, we bring our attention inward, to our own internal sensations and practice noticing—but not...
