Category: Uncategorized

the kintsugi artisan

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

it is as though
i knew you before i knew you
you—like second skin on my soul
carried me home
before, even, i’d known i was lost
you found me
heart-splintered and a thousand pieces scattered
but you gathered them all
one by one
like the wayfarer who scours the sandy beaches
for seashells and sea glass
for an unusual rock, driftwood, or feather

and,
with your light
with your yellow and gold
with your beautiful love
you gently pieced all of them back
together
back into this whole heart and breathing body

it is as though
you know me better than i know myself
as though you have always known me
ever since the sun and the moon
first touched
the sky

Folding Cranes

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Folding Japanese origami peace cranes is one of my early childhood memories. As as small girl, I watched my mother’s quick and nimble fingers magically fold and crease the single sheet of square paper with a graceful ease that mystified me. In the time that it took me to make one crane, she would have finished several of them, and then she’d laugh with amusement at my little-girl cocktail of envy, frustration, astonishment and admiration. We gave our carefully folded cranes away to friends and neighbors, and to strangers at peace rallies.

Now I am older than my mother was then, and perhaps I’ve made hundreds of peace cranes throughout my life, inspired in part by my mother and in part by the story of Sadako Sasaki—the young girl who folded paper cranes in the hope that her wish to be healed from leukemia would be granted. Sadly, in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, Sadako died at the age of 12 but her wish for healing and peace symbolized in the act of folding paper cranes lives on. Every year school children from all over Japan, and people from all around the world, make thousands of cranes and hang them up at the children’s peace monument in Hiroshima.

In this time where the world seems to be teetering on edge and everyone seems to be running on empty, I asked myself what I can do to create more peace—for myself and for others. Folding paper cranes is something simple that I know how to do. And an ancient Japanese legend says that if you make one thousand cranes your wish will come true… so I decided to make one thousand cranes for peace. Starting just last month, I have only made 23 cranes so far and have another 977 cranes to go, but I am not concerned about how long it will take. I am folding them one by one and giving them away as I fold them, one by one. Each fold and crease, each crane, and each exchange—is one small moment of peace-making and one small moment of peace itself. The wish becomes reality already—in the folding, in the giving, in the choosing to continue one fold after another fold, one crane after another crane, one day after another… night. Journey and horizon become one prayer, one act of love, one choice for peace, one way of being, one path.

And when I have folded the 1,000th crane maybe I will start on another thousand or on some other peace project… but it doesn’t really matter because in the choosing now, in the folding and creasing and loving now, peace is already my world.

the journey

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

as haiku:

seven thousand miles
step by step and side by side
this journey of life

as free verse poetry:

in the middle of the journey
neither shore can be seen
in the middle
the deep unknown rises to the surface and stretches
seven thousand miles in every direction
and becomes
horizon

in the middle
there is no forwards nor backwards
there is only this journey itself
step by step
and life, like a siren to the soul,
is salt and honey
and the waves crashing

but even here, in the middle, in the deep endless blue
you stay
everywhere with me
like an angel, or
an immortal dragon—guardian of my heart
and together, side by side, we see
a bright shining light
polaris
of the night

A Prayer for the New Year

.Reading time 1 minute.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
may all beings be peaceful
may all beings be happy
may all beings be safe
may all beings awaken to the light of their true nature
may all beings be free

(a Buddhist mantra for metta, loving-kindness, meditation)

Seeing the many images and videos of the Buddhist monks with Aloka, the peace dog, walking 2,300 miles for peace reminded me of the above mantra. Indeed, may we all walk a path of peace in the ritual of our day to day lives—in how we show up for ourselves and for others. Peace, not contained by religion nor political persuasion, is available to all of us.

may you be peaceful
may you be happy
may you be safe
may you awaken to the light of your true nature
may you be free
💛

*the photo above is the first sunrise of 2026

止め石 tomeishi

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

And then she stumbled
into an enchanted garden
where
just ahead on the path
sat a little wild rabbit, cute and captivating
stone-still
but unlike Alice she flew
up into worlds
with endless sunlight
and fields of flowers for as far as
she could see
Her rabbit,
being sometimes a stag or a dragon or a jaguar
an angel or
polaris itself,
holds her hand
and together they venture further out and beyond and further still
into this garden
into this deep well of light
where
all the paths converge, and where
only love itself
shines
in the darkness

(this is something of a sequel to my last post, “rolling stone”)

    rolling stone

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    *photo credit: Kanenori on Pixabay
    (I slightly altered photo color and light.)

    i am
    a rolling stone
    mossy
    messy
    and
    deep emerald green

    Have you ever tried writing the story of your life in six to ten words? I tried this recently with some of my students, and came up with the following:
    a rolling stone, mossy, messy, deep emerald green
    After reflecting on it for a bit, I was pleasantly surprised by how much of me unpacked within just eight words! What story do you read in these words? To me they describe a character who is a little unconventional, even a bit rebellious at times, possibly hard-headed and stubborn, but on the other hand original and unique. She has a deep love and reverence for nature. Like a rolling stone, she is adventurous and has lived in many different places—not however, resulting in loss but in an ever deepening and enriching, moss-gathering journey through life. The journey is sometimes messy and most certainly not without many a mishap, but it is also all together magical, enchanting, and beautiful.

    What is your life story in ten words?

    ground

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    i want to break open
    my heart
    at dawn, and
    at dusk
    with the flight of a thousand birds
    rising
    wind streaming over my body—skin bare, like bones,
    i feel the shadows trailing wingtips
    of ravens
    and their silent caress across the bleached stones below

    i want to dissolve
    the day
    into these rushing waves as they run
    up onto this sandy shore
    kissing my toes and
    pulling earth from underneath my feet
    i fall into their sea
    sinking and drowning
    all the heaviness of my heart

    and in the glimmering darkness of night
    i want to dance
    here in the secret garden of wild roses
    together
    with my love
    with sweetness and with honey, and with
    a belly full of dreams
    i want to plant each one in this soil
    in this soft sacred ground
    growing worlds

    of beauty

    Seréin

    .Reading time less than 1 minute.

    here
    and
    now
    sailing this river
    with you
    silence is serene
    like
    the warm sun traveling over my skin
    like silk
    and the darkness is sanctuary
    is peace
    is free from every day cataclysm
    from the deluge of chaos and turmoil
    here
    with you
    this river is wide and deep and gold
    and sailing underneath a canopy of sparkling stars
    i find myself
    home
    in your enveloping arms
    home
    in your everywhere love

    now
    the sun is rising
    in your eyes

    sacré

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    i want to worship here
    in this temple
    of the body
    where love is the altar
    and where dance is the prayer

    All life is sacred. Every-body is an embodiment of the divine. We are how the divine knows itself. We are divinity realizing itself. And what is “the divine”? What is the “divinity” of which we speak? Why, it is love—nothing less and nothing more.

    Maybe this is it… This is the awakening… to know this not as conjecture, conviction, philosophy or belief… but to experience this as reality—the same way in which we experience the rain, sunshine, wind and soil. The same way in which we know who we are and in which we know our own names.

    So… let us dance, you & i, together.

    a cup of coffee

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    steaming bright and bold
    i am black bitter coffee
    with the sun, rising

    In this crazy world of ours… I want to be peace and to be love—and a little bit of whimsy. Anything else simply hurts too much. Aren’t we all beyond tired of the violence by now? Exhausted, really. We’ve seen world wars traumatize generations and we’ve watched empires rise and fall like storm systems shifting across the globe.
    Where does it all come from? I do not understand its fuel nor this pathology of self-destruction. I am not sold on a superficial history defined by battles between so-called heroes and villains, saviors and sinners, the haves and the have-nots, and the blessed and the damned. All life is sacred. We are all worthy and beautiful.

    I sit in the morning. Groggy, with recalled terrors from yesterday’s news—these persistent, ongoing nightmares of abductions, starvation, theft, genocide… and the suffering of children. Mania of distorted powers. And i try to just breathe and sip my hot, black coffee. We are steaming. With the sun, we rise again for a new day.