“I’m slowly learning how to bring anthropology and mindfulness together. I think they complement each other beautifully, but how to talk about it is a whole other thing. I think it comes down to excavation – what you do physically to understand where people come from. That’s a process of discovery and insight.”

Dr. Michael J. Kimball

"It’s easier to live in the story you tell yourself about the world rather than the world itself."

~ Nate Staniforth

"I will always hold you close,
But I will learn to let you go.
I promise I’ll do better."

Sleeping at Last

"i want to feel tectonic shifts.
i want to be. i want to be astonished."

~ Sleeping at Last

"with shortness of breath, i’ll explain the infinite— 
how rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist."

~ Sleeping at Last

"When you penetrate a mystery, it doesn’t become less mysterious. It becomes, if anything, more mysterious."

~ Stephen Batchelor

We’re nothing less than a work in progress,
sacred text on post it notes.

"In this mode of consciousness, the most supremely banal transforms into the most supremely baffling and awe-inducing. That which is most obvious and taken for granted is simultaneously that which is most mysterious and astonishing."

~ Brian Maniscalco

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled –
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.

"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god?" ~ Alan Watts

"There are lots of things in the world that give us acute pleasure. There are also lots of things in the world that make us feel marginal. But there's almost nothing other than beauty that does those two things simultaneously, that gives us acute pleasure at the very moment that it makes us feel marginal and happy to be on the margins, to stand back, to listen to the piece of music and just feel awe at what has been created."

~ Elaine Scarry

“Your eyes are open,
Your body's moving,
Your lips are speaking,
But you're far from awake.”

From Sleepwalker by Cloud Cult

"Look, mine is not a unique situation. Everybody loses ability — everybody loses ability as they age. If you're lucky, this happens over the course of a few decades."

~ David Rakoff