In the psychiatrist Bessel van der Volk’s popular and influential 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, he traces—in often excruciating detail—a range of his patients’ traumas and the ways in…

As I’ve written and then voiced this nidra, my whole heart has been full of wishes to offer you a space and time in which to generate your own restoration and illumination, as you need and want and are able…

As I write this, it’s pouring rain outside, a kind of vertical sheeting with a force and volume that only became known to me when I first visited the American South and that is now—after decades living here, on the…

Yesterday, R. and I walked along the perimeter trails of Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee, among sculptures in the hardwood forest and within the late afternoon light and gentle air of a southern autumn day, a salve to…

On Wednesday morning, June 7, I began the third installment of my Pilgrimage walking art series, Pilgrimage 3: Tracing Skagway. Starting at the north end of Skagway, Alaska—my childhood home and a town built on a river delta with streets…

I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon, having just returned from a walk on which I was almost hit by a car. I’m less jangled by the near miss than I would have been had I been the driver, the incident…

My life has been imbalanced lately in favor of submitting on time a significant project toward my doctoral program, and I am feeling the varied effects of the hours of isolation, the hours sitting at my desk, the hours—unrelieved even…

I missed welcoming you to the weekend last Friday—and it was a long weekend! Easter weekend! There are times when there is nothing more to give, and it was one of those, but I thought of you—with longing, with the…

Tonight, I started the process of customizing a yoga nidra for someone, and from this nascent shaping until the final deliveries (in person and then recorded) of the nearly hour-long form of meditation, it’s among my happiest things to engage…

On my more than hour-long walk yesterday along a windy ridge line of miles of sidewalk between vast suburban neighborhoods, I saw just one other pedestrian. I passed elementary school children exploring their live oak-shaded playground and middle schoolers with…

After just a few years, it is possible to wear shoes out to the point of their not being fixable, even to a skilled repair person. Materials of the footwear collide with materials of the earth—its built and natural surfaces—enough…

Talking about resilience can be tricky: It’s so much better when centered in the resilient others that one has observed and admires and then applied to oneself than it is as prescription for those who are suffering, which can devolve…

At noon on Saturday, March 19, 2022, I am going to walk the second installation of my Pilgrimage art series, Pilgrimage 2: Solidarity of Care. I am grateful to my Transart Institute cohort; our conversation yesterday relative to art and the…

I walked for two hours in the middle of the day today, and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees during the walk, as a dry north wind pushed the warmer, humid air southward and gathering clouds obscured the sun. I…

As we move into these last few weeks of the holiday season and 2021 itself, my whole heart is full of a desire to offer you support and nurturing; tonight, I’m providing a free link to the last segment of…

A few weeks ago, I was out and about on errands, one of which required me to sit and wait near a long checkout line, in full and close eye contact with everyone who moved forward in the line,  so…

I have never been so glad as I am today for how young my mother was when I was born. I conceived of the art project I am creating this week as having at its heart a conversion—years to miles—and my…

You know when the air on your four-mile walk feels cool(ish)—but you learn, when you return home and check, that the outside temperature is actually still 90 degrees—that you’ve maybe been living in Central Texas for a while and going…

I’ve drafted and erased multiple versions of this post already, awash in a churning mixture of exhaustion, deep concern about loved ones, and self-criticism. Maybe soon I’ll be able to write about the first (thrilling! challenging!) day meeting my PhD…

When two of your adult children are dating people you have yet to meet in person but already love; when your adult children’s work and school commitments keep them from coming home to visit you; when they would still like…

When you’re a passenger on a motorcycle, the main view you have is the back of the helmet of the driver, the nape of his neck, the edge of his haircut; in my case today, the haircut I last gave…

This year, the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere falls on Sunday, June 20 (the same as Father’s Day), at 10:32 p.m. Central Daylight Time, marking the moment when the North Pole is at its furthest tilt toward the sun…

Right now, I’m basking in an abundance of love and bursting with gratitude: My birthday buddy middle son flew home a few days ago for a two-week stay, and today we’re 25 and 55 years old. There’s ample sunshine and…

In many ways, from last spring to this has felt like one continual winter for us, and perhaps for many of you. Although I went for long walks in the heat of the Texan summer (which I love, as you…

It’s been nine days, and on every single one of them, I’ve needed to spend five minutes dangling to lower my heart rate, elevate my perspective, and offer the connective tissues of my entire body—head to toe—a sustained opening and…

The hours of daylight are shrinking in the Northern Hemisphere, and the sunshine that does reach us comes in at a cooler, weakened slant; the temperatures are sinking; the holidays across faith traditions are marking the season with lights: If…

Back in May, I was listening (as usual) to NPR by way of KUT here in Austin and heard an article about Sarah Little Turnbull, who immediately became a new hero of mine for her life-changing, life-saving, wide-ranging accomplishments (the…

Our gathering via Zoom a month ago—for an Autumnal Equinox yin yoga and yoga nidra guided meditation—was a soul-satisfying delight. We said goodbye to the hot/pitta season of summer and welcomed the windy/vata season of fall with our grounded practice,…

What does a (fictional) grizzled sailor on a British ship during the Napoleonic Wars have to do with yin yoga? In the movie “Master and Commander of the Far Side of the World” (one of our family’s favorites for its…

Yesterday was full of a variety of sorrows, and when I woke up this morning, I could locate exactly where in my body the residue of those feelings was stored: under my right shoulder blade, running up over my right…

Yoga nidra is a guided meditation that follows a specific pattern, which encourages and allows your body, mind, and spirit to relax, restore, and renew at a profound level that is difficult to achieve otherwise, even through the most restful…

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.” Rumi