was thrilling to me, day-planning on such a primitive level. Because I was so ill, nothing was demanded of me by other people: no performance, no self-sufficiency, no multi-tasking. Just me living and breathing. I began to look out at the world, at everything, from the point of view of my body. And this looking out from inside my body, fully inhabiting it, living in its needs for sustenance and comfort rather than in my ego desires -- this shift was the most important in terms of my subsequent happiness. I've often heard people who have to live with an extraordinary amount of anguish or physical pain in their life say, "I know it would be better if I could accept my situation, a... posted on Apr 26 2023 (3,179 reads)

So you call forth something beautiful by asking a beautiful question. Whyte:Yes, you do. You do. And then the other part of it, too, is that there’s this kind of weighted silence behind each question. And to live with that sense of trepidation, what I call beautiful trepidation, the sense of something about to happen that you’ve wanted, but that you’re scared to death of actually happening — [laughs] that’s — yes; none of us really feel we deserve our happiness. Tippett:I want to ask you, before we hear some more poetry, this ancient, animating question, what does it mean to be human? I mean, that’s something you have reflected on with lan... posted on Jun 18 2023 (4,138 reads)

like an infant to its mother. Something called my eye upward and there. Hanging above me like a nightmare kite, a man-ape shape, backlit against the brilliant sky, arms dangling. It leaped and cavorted about on the sheer rock above me like a monkey raging gloriously in a tree. I clung to my niche and watched in open-mouthed shock as this image of primate ecstasy joyed toward me and appeared nearer to be a young man in a shabby jacket, his healthy face glowing in a glory of unabashed happiness. What my face expressed to him, I can’t imagine but as he got closer to me, he smiled at me, danced around me as I lay there and said, “Just call me your friendly neighborhood sp... posted on Jun 19 2023 (2,817 reads)

laureate of the Nobel Prize, awarded him for literature that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) died in a car crash with an unused train ticket to the same destination in his pocket. The writings he left behind — about the key to strength of character, about creativity as resistance, about the antidotes to the absurdity of life, about happiness as our moral obligation — endure as a living testament to Mary Shelley’s conviction that “it is by words that the world’s great fight, now in these civilize... posted on Sep 1 2023 (3,306 reads)

a do-it-aheader, and we’ve got a joke in our family about thanking Karla from the past. We’ll find some job I finished weeks ago, or unearth finished pieces to a project that’s crucial, or we’ll find important papers in my filing system, and we’ll say, “Thanks, Karla from the past, for making things easy!” Clearly, this thankfulness is a great motivator, because in each day, I think of all kinds of cool projects and jobs to do for the future happiness of my friends, my family, and myself. It’s a total win-win. It’s time travel that works! Before I heard Dr, Lamia, I would have said that I didn’t have anxiety... posted on Oct 5 2023 (18,965 reads)

up connecting her to a wonderful and generous community of kindred spirits, a second family.             What I wish for those hoping to publish is simple. Pleasure in whatever acclaim and riches the world bestows on you. Heaps of positive reviews, easily dismissable poor ones, and good writer friends to weather all the storms with you. I wish for you the honest, quiet, and enduring satisfaction of finishing a job of work. The child-like happiness in beholding something you have made, a unqiue manifestation and expression of who you are, and then, the generous joy of giving it away... posted on Nov 29 2023 (2,504 reads)