Social media is a powerful and dangerous tool, giving us unprecedented opportunities to share thoughts and opinions with virtually everyone, for better or worse.

Used mindfully and compassionately, it can bring us together, supporting our shared humanity,
and strengthening our sense of community; used carelessly, it can tear us apart, spreading fear and hatred like a cancer.

The choice is ours.

How easily
we are seduced
by the thrill of judgement
and righteous indignation,
when we may vilify anyone,
in our digital jungle,
without the awkwardness
of having to face
whoever we attack.

How quickly
we have become
the faceless arbiters
of nearly everything,
railing against the world
that we imagine
in our darkest fears,
safe behind our screens,
marinating in our own opinions,
drunk with the agreement
of other angry souls.

How far we have fallen
down this slope of vitriol,
abandoning civility
and kindness,
when it is so much easier
to insult or accuse
than to face another human
with compassion and respect.

How have we forgotten
to talk to one another
as if objective reality mattered,
as if what we hold in common mattered,
as if EVERYONE mattered?

How have we ignored
the simple truth
that those we disapprove of
are human, too?

How can we reclaim
our shared humanity,
rejecting the dangerous myths
that seems to separate us,
and embracing
what binds us?

Streaming down the Palisades Parkway,
trees roll by in stately procession,
distant hills framed in their embrace,
as the road snakes ahead of me.

Sliding down this highway
like blood through a vein,
I glide through this borderland,
the edge between two worlds.

How beautiful, this dance
between the world of Nature
and the world of Man!

What serendipity,
to be cradled thus,
in my little machine,
within these verdant arms!

Give the world
your full attention,
and it will come alive for you,
a universe of richness and delights.

Give each thing you do
your full attention,
and a world of ease and possibility
will open for you.

Give the person in front of you
your full attention,
and they will become real for you,
as you will become real for them.

Cooking
is like writing,
or painting,
like making music,
or making love.

When “what should I do?”
falls away,
that is when
there is no one there,
and that is when
the magic happens.

How to do something:

empty your mind,
and see what needs
to be done;

then empty your mind,
and do it;

and then empty your mind,
and keep doing it,
until you see
that it is done.

This uncomfortable feeling
wouldn’t seem so bad,
if not for the thought
that I shouldn’t be having it.

When I let go of that thought,
and simply sit with the feeling,
it softens,
and soon fades.

It was just a tinge of energy,
with some ideas floating around it,
and it all dissipates,
like smoke,
when I simply let it be.

Bodies moving
with animal joy,
one flow.

Waves
in a sea of rhythm,
an ocean of love.

We are Life,
loving itself.

Nature enlivens us,
and soothes us,
because it is a part of us
we have forgotten.

No matter how
we separate ourselves,
ensconced in our edifices,
we are always part
of the world of Nature,
its unruly and dangerous
children.

In our precociousness,
and in our greed,
we have tried too hard
to tame it.

Perhaps it is time
to let it tame us.

There is so much to drink in,
to taste and savor,
when our sight isn’t deadened
by the drugs we choose.

How rich the world is
when our senses listen,
and we throw off
our blanket of numbness,
and we abandon ourselves
to the rawness and thrill
of being alive.

It stings,
to be without the bandaid
of the drug we choose,
the liquid, the chemical,
the digital distraction
that lulls us.

It is like coming out
of a dark room,
and being assailed
by the blinding light,
until we adjust to its brightness,
and, trusting in our own resilience,
relax into the freedom
of the open sky.

Take care of yourself
because you love yourself.

And when you aren’t
loving yourself,
take care of yourself
so you can love yourself
for doing it.