Trail Guides
“To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” Fred Rogers
Author Archives: admin
You Can Go Home Again
After 29 years, Marlon is going home. If he can figure out where and what home is. Prison “never felt like home. You have to be thinking, be aware of your surroundings and the people you are around at all … Continue reading
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Tagged acceptance, healing, heroic journey, home, homelessness, Lao Tzu, lostness, Prodigal Son, Thomas Wolfe, Wizard of Oz
12 Comments
Weekend in Nirvana
Why wait until you die to go to Heaven? It just might be all around you right now. Many people claim to have gone to places of wholeness, love, and safety, where there is no fear, no separation from the … Continue reading
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Tagged acceptance, Brahmananda, death, Eben Alexander, Eckhart Tolle, Heaven, Jill Taylor, Lao Tzu, meditation, Naomi Wolf, Nirvana, One Taste, orgasm, orgasmic meditation, peace, religion
11 Comments
Little Teachers
Can you walk into a room and have everyone there light up with smiles? Do you make most people feel better just by your presence? Can you get them to meet your needs without telling them what those needs are? … Continue reading
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4 Comments
Life and Death are Relative
As we do about once a year, Aisha and I were watching ducks in a small lake in Golden Gate Park, across the road from a stand of redwood trees. The mallards with their gorgeous green heads, the black and … Continue reading
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Tagged Amy Tan, Bob Marley, Buddhism, Chuang-Tzu, Day of the Dead, death, ducks, Golden Gate Park, Heaven, Jill Taylor, Lao Tzu, peace, quantum mechanics, survival, Taoism, Zen
19 Comments
The Value of Being an Outsider
My friends Rose and Jeffrey are outsiders. They were born to poor but striving Chinese immigrant families. They met in college, where Jeffrey was learning engineering, and have been married for 40 years. Sounds like a common story, but there … Continue reading
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12 Comments
The Soft Survive
Lao-Tzu wrote: Living people are soft and tender Corpses are hard and stiff The living grass, the trees, are soft and pliant Dead they’re dry and brittle So hardness and stiffness go with death Tenderness, softness go with life And … Continue reading
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Tagged adaptability, Bali, courage, Darwin, Lao Tzu, Native Americans, patience, peace, resistance, survival, Taoism
9 Comments
Is Heaven Just a Thought Away?
Ten years ago, my brother bought a bumper sticker: “Don’t believe everything you think.” I thought that was amusing. How can you not believe what you think? Later on, I saw it as a reminder to lighten up. Admit you … Continue reading
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Tagged Byron Katie, emotions, happiness, Heaven, Hell, Jill Taylor, Loving What Is, OCD, optimism, Taoism, thought-changing
13 Comments
Even Nightmares Can Heal
Lady Li was daughter of the border officer at Ai. When captured by the Duke of Jin for a concubine, she cried so hard and long she completely soaked her robes. But when she reached the Duke’s palace and experienced … Continue reading
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7 Comments
Animals Enjoy Life – Do We?
“I saw a chimpanzee gaze at a particularly beautiful sunset for a full 15 minutes, watching the changing colors, until it became so dark that he had to retire to the forest without stopping to pick a pawpaw for his … Continue reading
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12 Comments
The Ocean of Time
Do you ever have the feeling of “too much to do; too little time”? Really takes a bite out of the pleasure of life, doesn’t it? If the stress of time ever weighs on you, here’s a reading that might … Continue reading
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15 Comments