I just finished reading Muhammad by Karen Armstrong (Orion Publishing, 1991) while en route from Dubai to Paris, and a steward on the plane stopped me to see if I liked the book. He was Pakistani and a Muslim and could not say enough about how wonderful he thought her...

Last night I pulled a down comforter over me in a five-star Dubai hotel as I sank luxuriously into the 1000 thread sheets and feather-soft mattress. We arrived in Dubai for a one night stopover en route to Paris from Malawi.

As I lay in that extreme comfort I...

I visited Kibera last week - the largest slum in the world and the center of recent post-election violence in Kenya. We were guests of a not-for-profit organization called Comic Relief (our hosts out of the U.K.) that provide funds for multiple programs around the world to combat poverty with...

"Our religion is an attitude of mind, not a dogma" said Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) a member of the Sioux nation born in Minnesota in 1858.

I grew up in the 60s in Midwest America. It was a time of change in the U.S. when a new sweep at gender equality crossed our nation. I was a child before the women's movement and a woman in its aftermath. Women gained many newfound freedoms; but what if...

I notice elderly people a lot. Maybe it's because I've passed the mid-century mark and know I am moving into the later stages of life or maybe it is because my children have moved out of the house; whatever the reason, elderly people catch my eye. Sometimes they are shrunk...

In America, individualism (a doctrine that the interests of the individual are ethically paramount) is a driving force, from the basis of the economy to the government. Can this concept of individualism go too far? Perhaps it explains part of why among graduating high school students there is an increasing...

Sometimes I take myself too seriously. It usually happens when I am to 'do' something new in front of other people - like the time I officiated at my friend's wedding or the time I gave a speech at a large fund-raiser. If it entails 'performance' and the surroundings are...

I went to a memorial service yesterday for a friend's mother who died at 99. It was full of some 50+ people who knew this extraordinary woman - an ordinary mom who revealed the extraordinary in everyday life. She started using a computer at 83, fell in love with email...

I have a friend who loves to cook and eat. Her talent in life is cooking and she - like Julia Child - brings that joy to her family, friends and community. But my friend indulges herself too much as evident from her weight. She is by all definitions obese...

The road was circuitous, winding oddly right then straightening in a sharp left turn, the dirt changing at times from asphalt, to cement, and even spurts of cobblestone. As I walked my feet were covered in various fashion of dress - shiny black heels, sensible pumps, Penny Loafers, Earthshoes, flipflops...

The other day I heard a grandmother talking about her teenage grandchildren. It had been a long-time habit of this grandmother to send birthday checks to her children and their children on those special days. After years and years of this gift giving, she decided to stop because no one...

My son planted a no-dig garden this summer as part of his Senior Thesis for the University of Vermont (posted June 25, 2009). Today we stood in awe at a 6' tall tomato plant (one of four) that have some 4-6 tomatoes ripening as I write this post.

The...

I am beginning a new voyage into unknown territory - the worldly dimension of Art. When I was young I drew, painted, and loved making art but then I stopped, pursuing Words instead. Thinking and reason became my tools of worldly investigation, science the field of my attention. But last...

I am constantly amazed by the depth of training provided by motherhood for seeking "enlightenment." By that I mean an expansion of consciousness where you transcend your 'self' as an independent entity and experience yourself as part of an existent whole. By analogy it would be like suddenly realizing you...

I have something in common with Michelle Obama, a brand new vegetable garden in my back yard. Mine was started by my 21 year old son, home from college where he is majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Horticulture. For his Senior Thesis, he designed a sustainable vegetable garden...

Whenever I am feeling a little out of sorts or a little frustrated in life, I turn to any book written by Alan Watts and I find that it inevitably cheers me up. He had an eloquent means of bringing to the fore the simplest explanations for the most complicated...

I'm embarrassed to say I read Louise Hay's "You can heal your life" at times when I have a stiff neck, lower back pain, or sinus flare-up. Her book is full of body to emotion relationships with positive affirmations offered as a means to counter what she considers the underlying...

The recent arrest of Philip Markoff, the accused Craigslist Killer, shakes us up because it is an example of a façade of normality covering an action of evil. It takes the idiom, 'you can't judge a book by its cover' to the extreme.

I wonder how, if the accusations...

How futile it is to rid oneself of the constant adjusting and re-adjusting of the relationship of I and AM, shortcut terms for our 'doing' self and our 'being' self. We spend our early years mustering the I to grow (our awareness of 'self' or 'I' emerges at about...