The Acrostic as Oblique Mirror
I have to catch my imagination by surprise. All my planning and plotting and sweating blood is best directed toward tricking myself into revealing what I didn’t know that I know.
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The Spell of Story
I have a complicated relationship with story. I think we all do. A good story can be a wonderful thing. A story can transport and transform, but it can also lead us into some pretty sketchy territory. We can spin a story, or it can spin us. It can transport us, but where — and …
Reflections on “Discovering Refuge Within”
As I’m preparing to co-teach Discovering Refuge Within: An 8-Week Meditation Journey, I have the opportunity to reflect on how I experience this thing we call Refuge, and what the journey of discovery can be. When I first learned about the Buddhist concept of Refuge, I was immediately attracted to what I thought would be …
We Don’t Need Another Hero
Stories are powerful. They can enlighten, soothe, inspire, celebrate – and they can also justify, incite, and obfuscate. It’s January 6 as I write this, exactly one year after a mob attacked the US Capitol to protest the verified and re-verified results of a democratic election. Yet for many in this country, the facts about …
Contemplative Practice and Creativity
I’ve been meditating for several decades, and have been practicing and studying with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a Dzogchen Master in the Tibetan Bön Buddhist tradition, since 2002. In 2010, he founded The 3 Doors, an international non-profit organization and expanding community of practitioners dedicated to transforming lives through meditation practices grounded in wisdom and compassion. …
Josepine Facehead Remembers James Sellars, 1940-2017
I recently learned that James Sellars died this past February. James was an incomparable composer, thinker and force of nature and I can’t quite imagine that he’s gone. James used to call me Josepine ( which he pronounced “who’s-a-peen”) Facehead, for reasons of his own. I think he meant it affectionately, but who knows.
Splitting Atoms with a Butter Knife
I grew up with the A-Bomb. I knew that my mom and dad met during the war, working on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, TN. This seemed somehow normal in our house. When I asked my dad what he did at work, he said he smashed atoms with a butter knife. It took me a while to start asking more complicated questions.
The Narrative of History is a Slippery Thing
Exploratory monologue for the character of LISE, inspired by physicist Lise Meitner, one of the women I am researching for:
SPLITTING ATOMS WITH A BUTTER KNIFE, a play with songs.
“I Know the World is Bruised and Bleeding…”
How the hell are we to respond to all the complexities of our world? War in other countries, corporate kleptocracy, persecution of our most vulnerable citizens, that person sitting across from us at the dinner table… Despair seems like a logical response.