Minimalism

It’s mid-February and an unexpected snow storm turned Portland into a winter wonderland. For a hot minute, I fretted over my emerging tulips that thought it was spring only a week before. And then I remembered, the only thing we can expect is the unexpected.

Every morning, I spend a few minutes sitting quietly with a cup of tea. For the last ten years or so, I’ve spent it staring through the large picture window that faces my garden.

After years of searching, it finally dawned on me that I had betrayed my deepest self along the way. All those attempts at fitting in were repeated demonstrations that I wasn’t enough.

“Since my house burnt down, I now own a better view Of the rising moon.” – Basho I’ve been on a quest to make my world small. It all started when I went big. I had a tiny house before they were vogue because it…

I used to pride myself in knowing the only shopping I enjoyed was for produce. For me, a day at the Farmer’s Market was and is nothing short of a spiritual experience, while going to the mall is like a visit to the Inferno. That…

“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.” – Joan Didion When asked if people were doing the best they can, a mentor once said: “I don’t know. All I know is that my life is better…

Few of us are guided to fully own who we are. Almost everyone lives out of the misguided belief that they aren’t enough.

Aparigraha, or nonattachment, brings us to the end of the Yamas portion of Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas. It invites us to enjoy life to the fullest while simultaneously being able to drop everything. This requires trust. Like a trapeze artist, who must let go fully…

Whether we find ourselves overdoing it with food, work, exercise or any other preferred distraction of choice, brahmacharya or nonexcess, invites us to remember the sacredness of all life. This guideline is a call to leave greed and excess behind and walk in this world with appreciation and gratitude