• Eirenicole

Mindfulness

the great doesn't happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together

Collaboration and the Art of Giving Up Credit

Collaboration and the Art of Giving Up Credit 2526 1915 Nicole
A creative masterpiece is the result of a succession of little strokes, tiny marks, a single idea and then another. read more

yūgen and the art of grace

yūgen and the art of grace 1536 1536 Nicole
Mindfulness practices are prevalent and pervasive, and their effects are well documented and understood. At the same time, their techniques devoid of the context from which they were derived (for example, relationship with God) limit the potential and capacity these practices hold for greater wellbeing and wholeness. read more

An Authentic Life: Keep It Simple

An Authentic Life: Keep It Simple Nicole

With Parker Palmer, I don’t really like being told what to do. I am so glad, in this instance, that he overcame his issues with authority and shared these instructions from Walt Whitman on how to live an authentic life: “This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise…

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Open Minded Possibilities (aka, eyes to see)

Open Minded Possibilities (aka, eyes to see) Nicole

Photography by, Greer Snyder One clue my body supplied that I was turning on the 50 mark was my eyes’ seemingly belligerent refusal to make sense of the printed words in my hand. I have worn glasses for reading since about my mid-twenties, but if I concentrated enough, I could still read. But when it…

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Have Courage, Wait – Day Thirty-Nine

Have Courage, Wait – Day Thirty-Nine Nicole

The Aracuraria Chilean Pine Tree can live to 1,000 years, with its upside down paintbrush-like shape that might have prevented plant-eating dinosaurs from grazing the forest’s floor. Tasmania’s Trakine Forest is home to the 3,000-year-old Huon Pines, and rivers that nurture lobster-sized crayfish in its currents. And the Japanese Cedar, or Yakusugi, thrive and have…

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Savoring Goodness – Day Thirty-Seven

Savoring Goodness – Day Thirty-Seven Nicole

One time when I was about four or five, it must have been Thanksgiving, I was sitting with my brother and two other children at the kids table in the back room. It was a communal meal so all the families contributed and somebody brought a dish of boiled peas and carrots. Peas were at…

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Language as Sacrament – Day Nine

Language as Sacrament – Day Nine Nicole

When I was in primary school grammar instruction was compulsory, precise and rigorous. Understand the categories and rules and I could receive an ‘A.’ While I was an exemplary student, I am also mildly dyslexic—I just didn’t know it then. Categorization is excruciating for one with a dyslexic processing brain. And word order? Oy gevalt!…

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Love Mercy – Day Four

Love Mercy – Day Four Nicole

On this fourth day into contemplating turning 50, desperately resisting the compulsion to take the easy route and apply the term angst (though it is likely more akin to ambivalence—but, more on that later), I am drawn to consider mercy. A recent entry to a blog I follow reviewed Anne Lamott’s book, Hallelujah Anyway, with a…

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Endure, Stand, at the Pace of Grace – Day Three

Endure, Stand, at the Pace of Grace – Day Three 150 150 Nicole

On this day, fifty years ago, Katherine Switzer began the #BostonMarathon. The problem was, women were not allowed to participate. Two miles into the contest, the race director, Jack Semple, fully angered at the realization that a woman had somehow slipped in attempted to physically force her out. Tom Miller, her boyfriend at the time,…

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Faithful Fifties – Day Two

Faithful Fifties – Day Two 150 150 Nicole

You may have heard of this resource called Google? Apparently, all the kids are using it these days. I jest, of course, but cannot restrain a groan when my kids lament the lack of speed with which their search tab opens and employ the term ‘google’ as a verb, and I recall those early days…

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