by David Anderson
Many of us who are still in good health have decided . . . that at some point we will not wish to cope with the diminishment of our lives, the narrowing choices, the prospect of both physical and intellectual decay. When that point comes, we’ll go out. Deciding just when should be the choice […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Choice, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Fear, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Suffering, Surrender, Uncategorized
One of the lessons we learn as we grow older is to cherish life every day, and not to pin our hopes on a future that never comes. We all believe in the myth of future bliss. Americans especially swear by this one—that with a lot of hard work and sacrifice we’ll one day achieve […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Awareness, Gratitude, Happiness, Love, Now/ the Present
Pam and I spent the weekend with our parents: Pam with her mother and I with my father. Her father died only a year ago or so, and my mother is gone fifteen years now. Both our parents—vigorous in their old age—have suffered setbacks in the last six months. Pam’s mother is on hospice, […]
by David Anderson 13 Comments Filed Under: Conflict, Family, Forgiveness, Happiness, Healing, Letting Go, Love, Now/ the Present
One morning a blood vessel exploded in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain. She felt a deep pain—like a head freeze from eating ice cream—behind her left eye. Slowly she watched as her brain functions shut down—speech, cognition, motion. Jill was a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist—a brain scientist, observing a brain undergoing a stroke . . . from the […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Daily Practice, Happiness, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Seeing, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
“It is never too late to love.” That’s what a good friend told me this week. I was telling her of a kind of break-through: I had learned to love someone a little better, to forgive someone (and pardon myself as well). It felt good, but almost immediately I thought, “I wish I had come […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Death/Dying, Forgiveness, Happiness, Letting Go, Love, Mercy, Now/ the Present
On Sunday the singer-song writer Leonard Cohen turned 80. While his friends and family were lighting the candles on his cake, Mr. Cohen was lighting a cigarette. A year ago he promised that when he turned 80 he would start smoking again after thirty years. Why not? If you’ve made it this far, you can […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Daily Practice, Death/Dying, Now/ the Present
“Remember to breathe.” I often say this to people under stress—whether it’s distress or eustress. It’s something I have to tell myself. We don’t have to think to breathe. If we did, we’d fall asleep at night and suffocate in our beds. But like all gifts, autonomic breathing also holds liabilities. We can go months, […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Breathing, Daily Practice, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation
One of the gifts of vacation is to change up one’s prayer ritual. Normally, Pam and I sit for prayer in a corner of our bedroom. There are two chairs, a small table for an oil lamp, a few sacred books, and a timer that sounds a Tibetan prayer bell when our orison is over. […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, creation, Daily Practice, Nature/Creation, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation