“I like the fact that the word “observing” starts with the letter “o”.  Like a circle, it allows you to stand on the periphery and see the whole rather than parts thereof. There’s equality here: no matter where you stand on the “o” you see the same whole again and again and again. It’s not bigger or smaller; more colourful or not; more powerful or not. Like the letter “o”, observing allows you time to see all wholly, uniformly and fairly.  How...

“Just because everyone else shops on Black Friday doesn’t mean you have to.  Just because everyone else says politicians aren’t honest doesn’t mean you have to. Just because everyone else drives their kid to school doesn’t mean you have to.  Just because everyone else is watching the latest Survivor doesn’t mean you have to. Just because everyone else is tweeting away, doesn’t mean you have to. Just because everyone else is worried about the...

“Time to get the shopping done, take out the garbage, drop off the present; time to have a cup of tea, do the laundry, change the bed; time to bake the cookies, take a bath, sew on the button; time to pay the bills, visit a friend, see a movie; time to go for a walk, meditate in the garden, think about a loved one; time to write an email, a letter, a diary entry; time to work, to work some more, and more and more. No time to play? Time to cry...

“One day this week a number of encounters occurred: chatting with two patients in the hospital’s psych ward – a friend in crisis needed to be taken there; calling 911 for a person who had difficulty walking with his heavy bag – he told me he had had too much to drink; exchanging smiles with a Tent City person who appreciated the two dollar coin dropped in her paper cup. Such a view of life might seem hopeless yet these brief, intense happenings...

“I was having coffee at a favourite town café and reading the paper. Beside me in earshot, two women were describing their ailments: chronic and otherwise, new medication on top of old, its effects on their respective bodies whether a now swollen foot or more rapid heartrate… I was not deliberately listening; their voices were loud enough to break through the regular din of this popular spot. What struck me was the absence of personalizing...

“Ever felt this way? It’s like your system has uncoiled into a state of what I would call present-being. More than just being, present-being factors in your awareness. Your awareness is acute yet unaroused; it’s not reacting but merely observing  with a heightened sensitivity that makes you feel you could literally walk into – even dissolve – into the reality you see around you. I liken it to a complete sense of peace. I hope you have felt this...