For a Moment

On the plane home during my 8th grade class’s trip to Rome, I sit next to Vasily. I am 14. I have a large cup of Mountain Dew in my lap, its contents looking like they could glow in the dark. I drink a lot of it and then put it between my legs, fall

What I Wish Hadn’t Happened

He walked along the row of seats, putting his hands on people’s shoulders and whispering in people’s ears. He’s just doing that so he can whisper in mine. It made me feel better to think this. I was the end of the row. He stopped, and put his hands on either side of my neck

For a Moment

A million years ago, I was in an airplane with my seventh and eighth grade classmates, flying back to California from Italy. We were unbelievably lucky private school children who had just spent a week in one of the oldest cities of Western Civilization doing what eighth graders do–having fun but missing the full gravity

Things, 1/23/21

Have you ever tried saying something like “May it be blessed” when you do something or have anxiety around something that happens? The tags on my car are out of date because this year has been a nightmare and today I was driving and cop car drove by and I was overcome with anxiety. I

The Truths of the Heart

“It isn’t possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View Yesterday, I got an astrology reading from an

Softness in a Culture of Punishment

My favorite voice in Buddhism is a lesser known Zen “guide” named Cheri Huber. I discovered her ten years ago while staying at a monastery in Central California, between my sophomore and junior years of college. The monastery doubled as a resort in the summer and while I was there I was assigned to the

Reason for Being

Because my existential hubris is so enormous, I am going to tell you why I think we are here: we are here to identify with the suffering. Buddha will tell you that “life is suffering,” or “there is suffering” (they sound different to me, but both imply a very human denial of the existence of