is an excerpt from 'Love Letters from La Pineta' Introduction Writing has served as a source of healing for me twice in my life when it appeared that the bottom had fallen out of my world. Both times writing was of great comfort, taking a different form each time. First it was in the form of simple poems written in tandem through email with my son Aaron Jackson, who lived 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles at the time. Our shared writing helped me to recover my use of language and joy in life after a near death experience in the form of a brain aneurysm. The second time writing helped me to heal was through letters written to my beloved husband of 38 years after his death (he b... posted on Feb 14 2020 (4,729 reads)

of others. So too can leaning into the questions that surface the most essential aspects of our humanity: What is your pain? What do you fear? What are your hopes for your life and the lives of those you love? Listening with the intent to hear through the ears of another creates the pathway to remembering the truth of our shared being as part of the web of life.  So I remember with the intent to act. I remember that you are of me, and I am of you; that your pain is my pain as your joy is my joy. I remember the vast range of suffering that afflicted the world before the Covid-19 pandemic and that will continue to after. I remember the victims of war, oppression, disease, famine,... posted on Nov 16 2020 (6,282 reads)

together in this too muchness does not make it manageable, it does not magically make it something we can handle. But I believe it transforms us. Ross Gay speaks to this truth in his Book of Delights when he wonders aloud: “What if we joined our wildernesses together?” He rehearses all manner of wilderness, every shape of loss and grief, the theme of this past year, and then he keeps asking: “What if we joined our sorrows, I’m saying. I’m saying: What if that is joy?” The joining happens not just with people who have survived a similar loss, though that familiarity can bring a particular kind of comfort. In the first year after my son’s death, ... posted on Mar 10 2021 (6,142 reads)

This is like that. Just start doing something a little bit to extend yourself to others, to recognize others. And then, interestingly now, the research is quite powerful. It’s not only healing for them; they’re more likely to recognize you. And I sometimes refer to some aspects that are called bridging. So, we can become bridgers, and the heart of it is empathetic and compassionate listening. Paying attention to others. Paying attention to the Earth. One of my happiest, or most joyous moments on the planet was spending an hour and 15 minutes watching a spider spin a web. I don’t know if that spider was joyous that I was… TS: Possibly. jp: ... posted on Aug 31 2021 (3,398 reads)

and “grief.” But are they the same?   Grief is deep sorrow, usually in response to loss. Grief and anger are intricately linked; anger may be one stage of the grieving process.  Having attended several grief rituals, I learned from Francis that many indigenous cultures don’t equate grief with suffering. Grief is not a problem to be solved, he explained, but a human experience to be witnessed. He told a story about an elder-woman whose countenance radiated joy. Francis asked her what her secret was. “I’m joyful because I cry a lot.”  The act of grieving, in their eyes, isn’t optional. It’s a necessary release. Just ... posted on Oct 7 2021 (12,137 reads)

was the last time you were completely and joyfully astonished? What was your last amazing surprise? How often do you feel filled to the brim with “yes?” In the midst of a growing tide of chaos and anxiety, many of us retreat into the comfort of predictability.  Routines turn into ruts. The miracles of our days pass by uncherished. Surprise rarely pays us a call. Or if it does, we don’t bother to answer the door. I saw the power of astonishment beautifully displayed on a postcard-perfect summer afternoon on a Minneapolis lake. I am shooting a music video for my song “Yes,” along with two friends.  While they trail me in an... posted on Oct 13 2021 (7,466 reads)

okay. It’s just like that other kid said: you’re stronger than you know.’ “I felt so connected to that child. “I think we both felt seen. “My favorite lines of Charlotte’s Web, the lines that always make me cry, are toward the end of the book. They go like this: ‘These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song spa... posted on Mar 30 2022 (4,373 reads)

me, the first to rejoice at my scrambling into the open was my grandmother. If not for her unequivocal love, I might never have the courage to express myself at all. And, after all, isn’t art in all its forms the beautiful trail of our all-too-human attempts to say, again and again, I Am Here. “It is important to note that being seen enables us to claim our lives, and then it becomes possible to pass the gift on to others. But just as important as bearing witness is the joy with which these Bushmen proclaim what they see. It is the joy of first seeing and first knowing. This is a gift of love. “In a culture that erases its humanity, that keeps the act of inn... posted on Oct 5 2022 (4,760 reads)

a purple meadow quiver. Get still. Pet trail dogs. Buy the hat. Run out of gas. Befriend strangers. Knight yourself every morning for your newborn courage. Give grief her own lullaby. Drink whiskey beside a hundred-year-old cactus. Honor everything. Pray to something unnameable. Fall for someone impractical. Reacquaint yourself with desire and all her slender hands. Bear beauty for as long as you are able, and if you spot a sunning warbler glowing like a prism, remind yourself – joy is not a trick. - J. Sullivan  I didn’t write for nearly 8 years. Well, to be fair, I did write email campaigns and landing pages and flashy paragraphs called brand narrative... posted on Jul 6 2023 (6,779 reads)

The color combination would have been familiar to Father Ed; it was like that of the candy-striped silk shirt he wore when he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Florissant—which he last saw being used by a Jesuit brother to wipe the floors. Ever since, this shirt had symbolized for him everything he gave up in order to share in the poverty of Christ. Now, twenty-one years later, God was giving him back the colors that had been missing from his life, in a way that would bring him more joy than he could have ever imagined. “Then,” Bill said as he recalled that moment, balanced precariously upon his cane, [Father Ed] came into the room, carrying a battered black hat... posted on Aug 2 2023 (6,357 reads)

I spent a great deal of mental and emotional energy early in my writing life untangling writing from publishing. I understood that I could control whether or not I worked on any given day; whether my story or poem or novel was published was then beyond my control. Writing was something you did; publishing was something that was done to you. I didn’t want discouragement in publishing to diminish my enthusiasm for writing, which was then and remains now, one of the great joys and satisfaction of my life. In the 1990s, when I was still in my 30s, I was granted a sabbatical and, for the first time in my life, had several months of uninterrupted time to write. On my ... posted on Nov 29 2023 (2,567 reads)

for us. But is it? By any measure, the U.S. economy, in its pursuit of constant growth, is in dire need of critical life support. Too many people have lost jobs, homes, scholarships and retirement savings, along with peace of mind, in the face of complex uncertainties. Those individuals that have jobs are earning less in real income than in 2001, even though they spend more hours working and commuting than previous generations. We’ve had enough of the official mantra: Work more, enjoy less, pollute more, eat toxic foods and suffer illnesses, all for the sake of increasing the gross domestic product. Why not learn ways to work less and enjoy it more; spend more time with our fri... posted on Nov 20 2011 (23,530 reads)

buying and wrapping gifts, and encouraging random residents to pitch in with presents the underprivileged kids otherwise would never see. Jocelyn Hanrath, an adopted girl too humble to take any credit, is 13. “What Jocelyn has done is just remarkable; it’s delightful,” says Bonnie Peters, executive director of Family Support Center, whose LifeStart Village in Midvale already has seen bulging bags of gifts dropped off by Salt Lake City’s secret Santa. “She gets joy from doing it. It’s not to feather her nest. It’s just to show people joy and that they are valued. That is powerful.” Jocelyn, with help from her mother, April Hanrath, and don... posted on Dec 23 2011 (9,689 reads)

seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul. Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing. Serving is different from helping. Helping is not a relationship between equals. A helper may se... posted on Apr 16 2012 (98,977 reads)

was over, it became a butterfly.” “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”   Martin Luther King “I have the view…that the human being was not made for pleasure, was not made to gratify the ego, was not made to make money, and was not made to have babies: it was made to serve something bigger than oneself. We are built to serve.” Jacob Needleman “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and found that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”   R. Tagore “The more you unfold, the less likely you are to unravel.” &ld... posted on May 6 2012 (9,394 reads)

and his staff at the University of Pennsylvania conducted an experiment via the Internet, requiring subjects to carry out what were termed “gratitude visits.” Participants were asked to write a 300-word testimonial to someone who had had a major, positive effect on their lives. After the testimonial was completed, participants were to simply request to visit that person and hand deliver the testimonial. Almost always, the occasion elicited tears of affection, gratitude, and joy. Seligman found that even when subjects were tested a year after delivering the testimonial, a sense of enhanced happiness was detectable. Seligman, along with his colleague Christopher Peterson a... posted on Jan 22 2013 (51,334 reads)

fear keeps us paralyzed and stuck. And longing for the peace that is possible – if only we would put down all the efforts we make to know. There is no greater gift you can give yourself than the invitation to enter the world of not knowing. Why? If you are always going to know what you know now, things will always stay the same. How could they change? And by thinking you know what will happen, you are closing yourself off to the unimaginable – endless peace, unspeakable joy, awe and wonder. If you cling to what is familiar and comfortable, that is where you will live. Until you decide to take the plunge and let yourself not know. And consider this: Is the fam... posted on Jan 29 2013 (30,832 reads)

of the Forest The Earth University is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore, India’s national poet and a Nobel Prize laureate. Tagore started a learning center in Shantiniketan in West Bengal, India, as a forest school, both to take inspiration from nature and to create an Indian cultural renaissance. The school became a university in 1921, growing into one of India’s most famous centers of learning.  The forest teaches us enoughness: as a principle of equity, how to enjoy the gifts of nature without exploitation and accumulation. Today, just as in Tagore’s time, we need to turn to nature and the forest for lessons in freedom. In “The Religion of... posted on Feb 13 2013 (16,737 reads)

to read. I too, believe along with John Steinbeck, “It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child.” I remember the day I carried my paperback book home to read my mother when I was in first grade. I had learned to read! The excitement of this anticipation of being able to read to my mother is still with me. In my memory, we sat down together not far from the front door. I read the entire book to her with great delight and joy. When I was finished, she said, to me,” Now read it backwards.” She didn’t believe I had learned to read! With more joy than before, I read the entire book backwards. It was at t... posted on Dec 3 2013 (24,703 reads)

being a good ambassador for the book. . . . I had to vibrate at a very high level. So when we moved to this little town and there was a little bit of garden, it was so healing to stop writing for a while, . . . then stop doing interviews. . . . My mom used to say that every day that goes by that you don’t touch the earth, you are not really alive. She is a gardener, and my dad is a Christmas tree farmer. We spent a lot of time touching the earth when we were kids, but I didn’t enjoy it at the time. I wanted to be reading and writing plays and doing other things. That I came back home to that [connecting with the earth] was profoundly resettling. It was like rewinding a grandf... posted on Apr 7 2013 (32,361 reads)