Defining Moments
A story I have often told to illustrate our relationship with time is about a man at a party commiserating with others that he had lived more than half his life. The concept of “counting up our days” means that while we may be aware of the quantity of our days, the quality is never […]
Random Acts of Synchronicity
Legend has it that in 1982 Anne Herbert scrawled the words “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” on a place mat in a California restaurant and from there it randomly spread. About 10 years later Chuck Wall, a professor at Bakersfield College, recalls hearing about “random senseless acts of violence” and […]
The Films in Our Eyes
The first film I went to see was at a drive-in. It was the animated Disney classic Bambi. My mother has since recalled that I cried profusely when Bambi’s mother is killed. I don’t remember going to the movie or having cried but it certainly fits my knowing me. I cry at movies. I have […]
Shades of Beauty
It’s not the word itself, it is the way she says it. Lorell Frysh who has been a friend and fellow teacher at Kabbalah Experience was born in South Africa. When she talks about people that move her she refers to them as lovely. It’s the way she says “lovely”. For many though “lovely” […]
The Risk of Love
A number of our students went to hear a spiritual teacher last week on the topic of Intimate Relationships and Authentic Awakening. This mystic teacher hails from Vienna and is currently living with his wife in Tel Aviv. Thomas Hubl is his name and he is relatively young. Some of those who attended added up […]
A Look in the Mirror
I thought of a trivia game (perhaps it is already on the market) where you have names of characters an actor played in films and you have to guess who the actor is. For instance, if the following sequence of names were read out loud, after which name would you guess Marisa Tomei: Natalie Hegalhuzen, […]
Sand in Your Pocket
Yesterday on the way to teaching class my cell phone rang. My policy is to not answer the phone when I don’t recognize the number. I ignored it—my policy that is–to encounter a woman’s voice on the line. In the recesses of my cortex connected to voice recognition the name came to my vocal chords. […]
Crossing the Tight Rope
The slow food movement launched a clever new Ad Campaign to heighten people’s awareness of the use of hormones and anti-biotics in the fattening and immunizing of factory farmed animals: “You eat what your food eats. Make sure its natural.” The safe sex movement got this awareness going a few decades ago with spreading […]
Why You Were Born
Early in the movie Slumdog Millionaire the main character as a participant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire needs to answer the question: What motto is inscribed on India’s national emblem? The answer stuck with me: Truth alone triumphs. In Jewish tradition there is a similar phrase “The seal of the Holy One […]
The Yin and Yang of Grief
According to legend, the panda was once an all-white bear. When a small girl tried to save a panda cub from being attacked by a leopard, the leopard killed the girl instead. Pandas came to her funeral wearing armbands of black ashes. As they wiped their eyes, hugged each other, and covered their ears, they […]