Sure, not every immigrant is an Esperanza, but all it takes is one Esperanza to put the lie to the Glenn Becks, the Lou Dobbs, and others who would build a barricade of hate between the hopes of new arrivals and the opportunities in this country.
With 2009 coming to an end and so many of us having "lost" so many of the material comforts and ease that marked years prior, we are faced with an opportunity to do the soul work necessary for a more fulfilling, heart-centered life.
The last ten years were laden with opportunities for many to use and abuse the Now More Than Ever mantra. Perhaps, then, that should be the name for the period: the "Now More Than Evers."
We have been on a roller coaster when it comes to how we now sleep and what a ride we have been on.
People like to perpetuate the idea of creativity as a result of divine inspiration followed by a burst of manic, late-night work, completed in a garret during a thunderstorm. But it's less poetic than that.
Instead of picking a diet with the goal of losing weight, decide on a list of healthy habits you want to adopt that will help you reach your long-term health goals.
It is curious that New Year's Eve is synonymous with getting wasted. How do I define wasted? Technically put, I would define it as any party-related excess that results in feeling like crap the next day.
It often seems more exciting to focus on our resolutions for the coming year than it does to look back. However, before we jump ahead, it's essential that we complete the year with power and appreciation.
My teacher, Gelek Rimpoche, always says -- "Drip, drip, drip, the bucket fills." He means that if we meditate a little bit everyday, eventually our mind and heart shift toward more kindness and clarity.
As 2010 begins, I am plunged into a fresh gloom. Wouldn't it be nice if -- like the Christmas Armistice of 1914 -- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq simply stopped. A truce that lasted a day, that wouldn't rock the world.
Decades matter. Think about the 1950's versus the 1960's, for instance. That's how different one decade can be from another. Let's put the past behind us and think about how we'd like the next decade to be.
I find my home country, the United Kingdom, depressingly antagonistic when it comes to the subject of stripping and strip clubs, but I've always found the US to have a more tolerant and lenient attitude to the legalized sex industry.
The philosopher George Berkeley posed the question, "If a tree fell in the forest and no one heard it, would it make a sound?" A closer look may have bearing on the question of whether there is life after death.
