Comforting Thought: Holding a Frog

“Holding a frog – if you are quiet and slower than slow, you do not have to ‘catch’ a frog at all – you can just slide your hand beneath one and lift it up without inciting any hint of fear or effort to escape.” Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Book Review: Real Love – The Art of Mindful Connection by Sharon Salzberg

One of the most erudite, spiritually nourishing and comprehensive books on the topic of love – of self, others and the world. Encompassing romantic and platonic love, familial love, friendship and more, by one of the world’s foremost experts on Loving Kindness Meditation. Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Genre: Non-Fiction, Spirituality, Psychology, Buddhism, Self-Help Publisher: Flatiron books Review in one word: HelpfulContinue reading “Book Review: Real Love – The Art of Mindful Connection by Sharon Salzberg”

Comforting Thought: Illnesses come from our lack of connection to nature

Many of our illnesses, stresses and anxieties are due to a lack of connection with nature. Taking a hands-on approach to the natural world will help you to restore that connection. Feel the breeze on your face, let the water of the stream ripple through your hands, lie on the ground, take your shoes off and go barefoot.

10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #97

Try a test taste of some edible flowers, enjoy some weird pseudo 90’s R&B, learn about why dead wood is not actually dead, see some animated characters made from acorns and much more, it’s edition #97 of Interesting Things…namaste

Ancient Word of the Day: Shizen

Nature is not separate from humankind in Japanese culture. It is a part of us. And the need to keep the two in harmony can be seen in every aspect of life, from the design of gardens that incorporate the natural landscape, to the design of houses that blur inside and outside by means ofContinue reading “Ancient Word of the Day: Shizen”

Comforting Thought: Knowledge Deepens Appreciation

“Aldo Leopold said that our ability to perceive the quality of nature begins ‘as in art, with the pretty’ After that it expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. What he was getting at is this: knowledge deepens appreciation. Seeing cranes feeding in a wetland he saw notContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Knowledge Deepens Appreciation”

Dissapearing into the desert

“The desert could not be claimed or owned–it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names… Its caravans, those strange rambling feasts and cultures, left nothing behind, not an ember. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wishedContinue reading “Dissapearing into the desert”

Environmentalism boils down to faith in the end

Faith in the possibility of change, the prospect of a better future. For green shoots in the rubble, fresh water in the desert. And our faith is often tested. Everywhere I have looked, everywhere I have been – places bent and broken, despoiled and desolate, polluted and poisoned, I have found new life springing fromContinue reading “Environmentalism boils down to faith in the end”

Ancient Word of the Day: Kodama

Many Japanese folk stories are about kodama, a kind of nature deity that lives in a tree, a bit like a Greek Dryad. Some people believed that kodama travel throughout the forest, moving from tree to tree. Others believe that they inhabit a particular tree.

Comforting Thought: We should allow ourselves to receive love and care from others

Paradoxically, letting go sometimes means allowing ourselves to receive love and care from others. Our can-do culture has made many of us believe that we should always be self-sufficient. Somewhere along the way we also get the message that asking for help is a sign of weakness. We often forget that we’re interdependent creatures whoseContinue reading “Comforting Thought: We should allow ourselves to receive love and care from others”