Fail, Fall and Fly
In The Active Life, Parker Palmer wrote, “Much human action is laced with the problem of pride…. Prideful action is often followed by a fall. But we make a mistake when we try to avoid that fall...” In my twenties and thirties, along with my teaching career, I...
The Active Life Revisited
A few days ago, I travelled to DC and Baltimore to visit friends. While sharing thoughts about life changes, I mentioned Parker Palmer’s The Active Life. Some books are worth revisiting, and for me Palmer's book is one of them. I first read The Active Life in...
What do you Worship?
…quite often people confuse their fictional heroes with God. As they confuse their human lovers. Or themselves. It is a great hindrance to a happy life.– Jane Gardam, Crusoe’s Daughter While reading Adam Gopnik’s review of recent books about atheism – see “Bigger...
Vanaprastha
It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t explained why my husband and I chose the name Vanaprastha for our mountain house. Traditional Hindus divide life into four stages called Ashrama. The Student (brahmacari): one is chaste and obedient to teachers The...
Why I Blog
Click - Publish. On June 19th 2011, in a fit of narcissism and anxiety, I posted my first blog. What if the world doesn’t like what I wrote, I wondered. I needn’t have worried. Hardly anyone read that first post, except my mother and only because I sent it to her....