Every New Beginning
Every new beginning comes from another beginning’s end. I’ve quoted that line many times over the years, but lately it has stopped being a lyric and started being a lived experience. Life is full of transition, beginnings and endings. Sometimes we get to choose, and sometimes we don’t. There are moments in life […]
The Tree of Death
“I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that…I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that is something I cannot allow to happen.” 2001: A Space Odyssey The Nobel Prize in physics in 2024 was awarded to Geoffrey Hinton. He is not a physicist. The Nobel Prize in chemistry in […]
Noticing the Good
At the moment, my mom, sister and law, niece and nephew are in the kitchen. Uncle Joel came in with fresh bread from Whole Foods. My house is full of baking smells and people I love. Hakarat haTov, recognizing the good.This is a day to recognize and appreciate the good in the large and small […]
Bottle Cap
by Dr. David Sanders Just when I was ready to give up on humanity (not on any particular human just the overall take on whether the “human project” as a species could be trusted for even one generation to stop killing each other and wrecking the environment) a little spark of light, a glimmer […]
The Season of Becoming: Finding Light in the Unfolding
by Melanie Gruenwald As I watch the leaves shift from green to gold to crimson, I am reminded that change is the only constant. Each leaf that loosens its hold and drifts to the ground feels like a small teaching — a whisper that everything is in motion, that life is always unfolding. This autumn, […]
Circle Dance
by Dr. David Sanders I had a reason to look up a poem by T.S. Eliot I had never read, not realizing that it contained lines he wrote that I have admired for a long time: Toward the end of his Four Quartets: We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all […]
Metaphorically Speaking
by Melanie Gruenwald The concept of metaphor keeps showing up in my classes this month—and, also, in my own life. Metaphor is how I make sense of the things that can’t be explained directly. It’s how I teach, how I learn, how I sit with both joy and grief. When we talk about the Divine, […]
An Open Heart
by Melanie Gruenwald I recently began practicing yoga. After class, I notice that my heart feels wide open. I leave the studio wanting to connect with people. On Sundays, I wander through the Farmers Market after my flow, eager to share not only my Palisade peaches but also my spirit. Sometimes I even catch […]
My Grandmother
by Dr. David Sanders Today, I sent a photograph taken a number of years ago to my older sister Sarah. It was an image taken of a gravestone at a cemetery in New York where our grandmother, who we never met, is buried. My father’s mother died a few short days after giving birth to […]
Every New Beginning
by Melanie Gruenwald This time of year is always full of beginnings and endings—beginning of the school year, job changes, the turning of seasons. But this year, change feels sharper, closer to the bone. My husband has taken a job in another state. My twins are beginning their senior year of high school. Our home […]