Every day should surrender a small jewel, something new and intriguing for the body or the mind. Every day does, unless you have been sleeping. I woke today to page 122 of the hardcover edition of Silk Road Cooking, by Najmieh Batmanglij: Saffron Long treasured as a medicine, perfume, dye, and seasoning,saffron consists of the golden stigmas of the …
The beauty of the subtropics — as I experienced them for years in Brazil, and on other journeys far and away… … and now I understand that I was making a home of the Earth, not a home of – Spencer, New York, where I was born at the foot of a minor tree-crowned mountain; …
There's a song for the water of sorrow and a song for the fire of pain a song for the love that you'll meet tomorrow and one for the touch of skin ah, life gives us songs to sing Can you count how many times you've held pleasure in your hands? Open your fingers …
At the risk of becoming a Byfield Weatherbug, I'd like to report that the day has begun with mountains again. To the East, a layer of clouds — which is so similar to yesterday's formation that now I am thinking it must be ocean-bound fog — rests upon the Earth's horizon like a ridge of …
You walk through your day dissatisfied; there is something missing, or something amiss. In the evening you are tired, but it is weariness of spirit, not a physical depletion. Your body has not been a channel for a day well lived, life flowing into and through you, now ready to be replenished; instead, your energy …
You must acknowledge the beauty of loss: it makes your smile more natural, your glance deeper, your touch more compassionate. How many adults have been toughened to rigidity by the demands of a life, only to be snapped — like that — by an event that should have been expected? It’s too bad if you try, …
There are so many useful goals for a life. There seems to be one for every occasion, all so very useful. To be a success, to raise fine children, to travel the world, to follow pleasure where it leads, to save souls… My goals have been high, now they are not so lofty: to write …
The earth turned toward the sun at the same speed as always, but this morning the sun was veiled behind a curtain of cloud, which moved slowly west over the water toward our small patch of land. So the eye of the day — in Bahasa Indonesia, the sun is mata hari, quite literally the …
I met Manny last night — the first time we have really sat down together since our return to the States. After 30 days of intense travel, having shared the floor of the experience, as it were, as well as visited the sky, it was an easy hour which stretched to two, speaking about nothing …
If you do not meet the sacred in yourself, you will not meet the sacred in anything; if you meet the sacred anywhere, even in the smallest thing, you will have found the sacred within yourself. That is the first lesson, before all others. If you have not learned this lesson, reaching for another will …
As a driver, you choose where you are going (usually within the confines of paved roadways), when to get there (depending on traffic), and how stressed you wish to be over the process (all options available). But as a driver, your field of vision is drawn in: to a narrow strip of pavement ahead, to …
Evolution is a process that most of us associate with a geological time scale — the slow elucidation of life over the last 3.5 billion years. We also tend to assume that the most recent signs of continuing evolution must be happening in species with short life spans and rapid reproductive rates. A team of …