Category: Uncategorized Page 5 of 16

It turns out that I’ve developed a very simple—and delightful!—system of note-taking. 

I recently mentioned to a close friend how much I enjoy using a fountain pen filled with rose-colored ink to record notes throughout the day in a lined, turquoise notebook that is also a pleasure to use.

I was surprised by how eagerly she requested details. Turns out she accumulates paper covered with notes scrawled in such a hurry she can’t necessarily read them and was in the market for an improved approach. 🙂

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Ann Patchett has a new book out, and it’s splendid. 

The author of Bel Canto, The Dutch House, Truth and Beauty (a memoir of her friendship with the poet Lucy Grealy), and two moving, laugh-out-loud collections of memoirs, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage and These Precious Days—to name my favorites among her many—Patchett’s brand new book is Tom Lake.

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On Long Pond, Belgrade Lakes, Maine

I want to say something about the preciousness of friendship—which truly is an unfathomable treasure of life.  

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In class last week I was reminded of a simple, beautiful teaching I learned when I first started practicing Buddhist meditation and that I’ve never forgotten. 

It’s that a skillful aspiration is not to learn everything or to know everything but to remain open as the soil to the rain. If the soil is hardened, the rain runs right off. But if the soil is loose and friable, the rain can soak right in.

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Six months later, I’m still thinking about something a sangha member said in class early one morning.

Another sangha member had invited people to offer healing suggestions relative to a particular problem she was struggling with. My contribution was to recommend Metta meditation, in which we offer lovingkindness to ourselves and others, and ultimately to all beings without reservation, which can be tremendously healing for all.

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Why is forgiveness so hard? When it’s so important and so healing to forgive? 

Our egos have our necks in their teeth, that’s why, making us SURE that we are right, that THEY are wrong, and that we must NEVER give up what is clearly our RIGHT to be RIGHT!

Huh?

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