In late summer 2019, I was putting the finishing touches on Courage Says “Keep On,” a book about my grandmother, …
Category: Tai Chi
Looking for the Golden Thread chapter videos
These “moving illustrations” accompany each chapter of my book Looking for the Golden Thread. Published in July 2024, the book …
Joyfully Invisible
I took this photo while hiking in southern Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountains. As I look at it, I am …
Finding the sweet spot
I often find it helpful to start a blog post with a formal definition, to give myself a frame on …
Fear is physical—so be still, my heart
The earliest citation of the full phrase ‘be still, my beating heart’ comes from William Mountfort’s Zelmane, 1705: “Ha! hold …
Five elementals: Wood
Wood is more “elemental” before it has been made into something – or unmade into something, as when it slowly …
Five elementals: Water
My homescreen photo is about 75% water. As I mentally walk into the image, a breeze riffles the waves on …
Five elementals: Metal
At first thought, this seems to be the most unnatural of the five elementals in Chinese cosmology. That’s because I …
Five elementals: Earth, dissolving and transforming
Earth has qualities of darkness, yin, depth and quiet. I feel it with my toes, just below the surface of …
Five elementals: Fire
What does fire feel like to hold? The other four elements—metal, wood, earth, water—can be held. Fire can’t be held, …