The need to be a ‘know-it-all’ I have a problem with teachers. When I was little – for various reasons I won’t bore you with – I always felt that I had to know the answer before the question was asked. The possibility of being wrong or not being ‘perfect’ was a big problem for […]
Wordsworth is a key figure in Reggie’s understanding of dharma. Strange that a 19th Century Cumbrian poet should feature so strongly in a 20th Century American Buddhist scholar’s worldview but he does. I studied Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, ‘The Prelude’, at school and was always struck by some of his childhood recollections of moments of sublime […]
Friends whispered that Winter on the Island was the most magical I’ve been going to Holy Island for almost two decades – sometimes twice or three times a year. But until this January I had never been there in the Winter. Most of the Mindsprings retreats take place in the Summer and Autumn when vivid-green […]
the sweetest, fondest, brightest dog I’ve ever had Ok, so we have a dog. A puppy. A 40kg puppy. My husband promised that our Spanish rescue was a small boy, the little one of the litter and probably wouldn’t be any bigger than 35kg full grown. When he hopped out of the transport van that […]
Sitting in the winter garden with a head cold I am planning to write a set of blog posts about my 2 week retreat on Holy Island this winter, but I thought I’d ease myself back into writing and using my left-brain with something more embodied and immediate. My husband and I both have terrific […]
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies all our growth and freedom. VICTOR FRANKL
People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead. JAMES BALDWIN
Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. ALICE WALKER
Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by. ELIZABETH BISHOP
An art historian with a spooky and potentially kinky relationship I was just reading a lovely article by the New York composer Nico Muhly in the London Review of Books. He was describing his method of composition – which seems to involve a dizzying array of folders and layers and copies and projects which he […]