A note from Erin: Hello! Shall we start with a short and sweet poem? Love, love, love. It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? :) I have been enjoying reading Maya Angelou’s book “Letter to my Daughter.” Here’s an inspiring question she asks in one of the essays which I thought I’d share with…

A note from Carl: Good Morning! This morning on the cushion, I was reflecting on the response of two great modern Buddhist teachers to the question of: “What is the essence of meditation?” The Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche responded: “Intimacy. Meditation is the practice of intimacy.” When Suzuki Roshi, on the of the early…

A Note From Erin: Aloha! We returned from a wonderful week in Kauai a few days ago. I tried to send you a newsletter last Thursday from the desk in our cottage below. (The view was spectacular, but my sending was unsuccessful. The Hawaiian technology gods were not smiling on me :) ) I was…

“I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves. “For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve…

A note from Carl: Good morning! What glorious fall mornings we are having here in Salt Lake. I have been enjoying the cool moonlight as I start my days on the porch in the early morning. I’m very excited to be welcoming Russell Delman to town tomorrow. It will be a wonderful community gathering tomorrow…

Good day! September is such a glorious month. One of my favorites. Everything seems golden. On a recent camping trip in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, and a morning drive up Mill Creek Canyon today, and even just around the city, I find golden flowers, honey colored aspen leaves just beginning to turn, and…

A note from Carl: Good morning! What a beautiful late summer/ early fall morning with colors changing in the canyons. I find myself needing layers of fleece for morning coffee on the porch. I appreciate the nuances and changes of all seasons, but the transition into fall is one that is most satisfying for me.…

A note from Erin: This morning, a line from a Mary Oliver poem comes to mind. “I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often.” I’m having one of those days. Reintegration after a week of…

A note from Carl: Good Morning! Last week I was walking in a canyon, and out of my peripheral view I saw a giant shadow passing through the sky- I paused. I turned toward it. Was it a visitation from a hawk? An eagle? Hawks evoke for me, a special connection with my father, perhaps…

A note from Erin: “The role of a fully realized human being,” Meade says, “is to arrive at the door of death having become oneself.” I love this quote from Michael Meade. He continues in an interview that was featured in the Sun Magazine, “To become nobody but yourself, to struggle against the tide of…

A note from Carl: “Make of yourself a light,” said the Buddha, before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal – a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green. I love this opening line…

A note from Carl: Yesterday, I was out in a rainstorm – probably one of the most intense downpours I have ever experienced. As the rain began, I noticed a kind of reflex to to brace, to protect myself, to want to run from the trail we were on to the protection of the car.…

A note from Erin: Good morning! This morning I’m thinking about maitri.  Do you know this word? It’s one of my favorite words in any language. It’s from Sanskrit and it is often translated as something like “unconditional friendliness” or “unconditional warm welcoming.” I remember a powerful point from a teaching given by Pema Chodron in…

A note from Erin: Hello! I hope this note finds you well and enjoying the season. A few things I want to share with you this morning. First, tomorrow will wrap up my first e-course, the Embody Gratitude Project, and it’s been wonderful! I’ve gotten great feedback at how these simple practices can be so powerful in…

A note from Carl: This morning over a beautiful breakfast on the porch, (thanks Erin!) I was talking with Philip Shepherd about the topic of his talk tomorrow night, “Recovering Our Senses in the 21st Century.“ As we spoke, I was was reminded of a favorite poem from Hafiz: First the fish needs to say…

A note from Erin:   I am writing from a dear old Feldenkrais friend’s sunny dining table at her lovely home in the Mission district of San Francisco. Mesa is happily running around blasting things with lego planes along with Michela’s boys and the smell of a frittata is wafting through the air.    Yesterday,…

A note from Carl Some days, it’s best just to leave it to Rumi… I heard this poem read on a drive today, and it landed as though Ihad never heard it before. (as poems will do when we let them) Two Kinds of Intelligence There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired, as a child in school memorizes facts…

A note from Erin: (I’ve been starting my mornings with the roses lately….) Good morning! This past week marked the completion of a 5-month journey with my Women Embodied group. What an amazing experience it was. Though I know how powerful this work is, I am still stunned, amazed, and deeply honored to witness what happens within and between a group…

A note from Carl Good Morning! A couple days ago, Erin and I were reflecting on a passage from Parker Palmer’s book “A Hidden Wholeness-The Journey Toward An Undivided Life,” “I do not know who coined the phrase “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better,” but he or she must have had a great fantasy life.…

A note from Erin:   Good day, friend! I’m so inspired. A surprise gift from generous and loving friends.  Thanks Loos!  Yesterday Carl and I had the huge treat and absolute pleasure of interviewing Philip Shepherd, whom we’re so lucky to have coming to Salt Lake City next month.  Carl and I have been imagining…

The Embody Gratitude Project Nurturing Joy Through Embodying Thanks A 5-Week online Course for YOU! June 2 – July 4 I’m so thrilled to be offering my very first online course. Wahoooo! Can I tell you the truth? I wanted to get this email written days before I did. Yesterday morning, I developed a weird…

A note from Carl, A couple weeks ago, we celebrated Mesa’s 4th birthday. On the several opportunities he had to blow out candles and make a wish, (we like to extend our celebrations over the week) each time, he wished for some variety of a sword. His great love of swords began awhile back, the exact…

Gratitude is such a wonderful healing balm. One of the teachings that’s been working on me for years is this: The world I experience is the world I pay attention to. Wow. Is it really true? With years of personal research under my belt, I can say it seems to be so. And the more…

First, I want to say thank you for all of the loving, empathetic responses that came to us after what Erin wrote last week about her miscarriage. We have been deeply touched and grateful. Several times I have watched this short animation of a Brene Brown talk on empathy that Erin included last week, and…

2 weeks ago I began the process of having a miscarriage. My third. I was 9 weeks along this time, not quite ready to tell the world our news. Having been through miscarriages before, there’s a particular flavor of emotional intensity to this first-trimester time which I’m quite familiar with. In addition to the usual…

If you look around our house, you will find several piles that look like this… It is our current queue of inspiration. Erin just heard last week that kinesthetic learners pile rather than file. We both felt well validated… One book that has been in several piles around the house recently (we have a few…

Here in Salt Lake City, we are enjoying impossibly gorgeous days, replete with the scent of blossoms on the air, and everything seems to be bursting into life in full color. Ahhh. I love spring. I have 2 poems for you this morning. First this one, as the trees have been giving such gifts to…

A couple days ago, while working at the computer, Erin invited me to pause, and listen to Mary Oliver reading her poem: Mornings at Blackwater For years, every morning, I drank from Blackwater Pond. It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt, the feet of ducks. And always it assuaged me from the…

There’s something Russell Delman said when I was at a retreat with him in Seattle a few weeks ago that keeps coming back to me me, and I’m inspired to share it with you. First I’ll share a poem of Rumi’s and then play with the poem a bit to say it differently (kinda like…