Beyond This Realm
A few days before my father died, I began to feel his spirit sending me messages. Although it was hard to believe it was actually happening, the hospice nurses told me that they’d heard similar stories dozens of times. They’d also witnessed many near-death patients suddenly be able to hear words whispered far away in another room behind closed doors, as if they were no longer tethered to their bodies or limited by their physical senses. Even after my father passed, I continued to feel his presence.
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Harvest the Healing Energy of Fall
Mid-September—how I love this time of year! As someone who naturally wakes with the morning sun, I’m sleeping later with the longer nights. I enjoy how dusk arrives not too long after dinner, giving me plenty of time to settle down before bedtime. The days are still warm, but the nights are beginning to have a pleasant crisp chill that freshens the air.
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Gratitude for Innumerable Labors
“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree” is a Vietnamese proverb that feels especially relevant to share on Labor Day. Taking time to think about the innumerable efforts that go into creating the ordinary items in our lives that are so easy to take for granted—soap, fabric, eyeglasses, shoes, mugs, eggs, apples, and countless others—wakes us up to how interconnected we all are, and how many unknown people in the world deserve our appreciation.
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Holding Death Close
Today I’m sharing an essay about changing my relationship with death. When I “assigned” myself this topic a few months ago, I knew it would be both difficult and important, but I had no clue what would arise for me. It turned out that intimately contemplating death for so long with a sense of bravery, curiosity, and calm helped me shed much of the terror I’ve been projecting onto it. Ultimately, I discovered that holding death close is a powerful way to wake up to life.
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Judith Saly—A Hundred Years of Kindness
Today’s newsletter is written in honor of an exceptional woman, Judith Saly, who turns 100 tomorrow. Judith is my first friend to have lived for an entire century, and I’m eager to share some of her life story and valuable wisdom with you.
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Unplug to Recharge!
Taking a full 24-hours away from technology helps us gain more awareness about our often-unconscious habits and attachments while giving our brains and nervous systems a much-needed rest. It reminds us that recharging ourselves is more important than recharging our phones and helps us establish healthier boundaries with our devices every day so that we can experience more calm and peace in our lives.
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Healthy Boundaries from the Inside Out
I have what psychologists call “porous boundaries.” Common characteristics of such boundaries describe me perfectly: fearing rejection when I don’t comply with other’s expectations, overexplaining and feeling bad when I say no, getting over-involved in other people’s problems, and a tendency toward oversharing. My porous boundaries extend emotionally and energetically as well—when I’m with someone who has an upset stomach, I often begin to feel sick too.
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Savor the Present Moment
I have had two clear “awakening” experiences in my life. The first was as a third grader in Brooklyn when my class took a trip to tour Pete Seeger’s boat. As I lay on the deck with my eyes closed, palms resting against the polished wood, a strong sense of awe and reverence filled me. The sun warmed my face as the boat rocked gently on the water, and I suddenly had the best feeling of my entire life: CONNECTION.
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Wisdom from Martha Beck
As a best-selling author, speaker and life coach, Martha Beck helps countless people by unveiling the most intimate details of her life and healing journey as she shares the powerful lessons she’s gleaned with honesty, bravery, pragmatism and humor.
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Breather-Relaxer
My father believed that shallow breathing was “endemic to our day and age”—an indication of how much tension we hold in our bodies and how often we routinely suppress our feelings. He was convinced that changing how we breathe can lead directly to deep relaxation and profound healing.
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Tapping Into Our Mysterious Hearts
“Although we are part of a country and culture that places utmost reliance on linear, rational thought, our greatest wisdom doesn’t reside there. To gain access to our deepest knowing and discover what we’ve been storing in our hearts for so many years, we can tap into our imagination, emotions, memories, intuition bodily knowledge, dreams, and the relationships we have with the earth.” - Patrice Vecchione
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Balancing Output with Input
Today, I’m happy to share a piece I wrote for Spirituality & Health magazine—Leaning Into the Back Side of Your Chakras—that features a delightful practice I’ve been doing to help me balance my continuous output (everything I do in the world) with sufficient input (re-fueling, nourishment and rest).
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Let Go of Expectations and Comparisons
My dad once wrote: “Whenever I compare myself or my life against my ideas of perfection, I come out the loser. Nothing is perfect—not my family, not my job, not my body. If I have to wait for perfection to be happy, I will surely be waiting forever. The very belief that life should be a certain way—that I should feel happy—greatly contributes to my unhappiness.”
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The Four Agreements for Father’s Day
"To always have faith in the limitless power of love" was the transformative agreement my father was committed to embodying every single day.
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Slowing Down to Savor Summer
A few weeks ago, I took a haiku writing class with one of my favorite authors and teachers, Natalie Goldberg. One of the prompts she gave us was to write ten haiku about summertime in five minutes, but to convey the season without ever specifically naming it. What a lovely exercise!
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Off the Screen and Up to the Stars
For most of my life, one of my greatest pleasures was gazing up at the stars on clear, dark nights. As my eyes adjusted, I was always mesmerized by the countless new points of light that kept magically appearing as time went by. I never tired of communing with such vast, mysterious splendor.
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Wisdom from Paulo Coelho
I first discovered the Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho, decades ago when I read The Alchemist—a mesmerizing story about a young boy who learns to listen to his heart and find the courage to follow his dreams. “You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say,” is wisdom I will always remember from this short, inspiration-packed novel.
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Food to Live By
My father, Mendek Rubin, wasn’t alive to witness our book, Quest for Eternal Sunshine, get published and be so well-received, but I believe that on some other dimension he is rejoicing. Getting books out into the world was of huge importance him, and when I published my first cookbook, Food to Live By—The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook, he was extremely delighted.
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Wisdom from Lao Tzu
This week, I am happy to share some wisdom-rich quotes from Lao Tzu—a Taoist Chinese philosopher from the sixth century B.C. who is said to have authored the Tao Te Ching. Many famous sayings trace back to the Tao Te Ching, including “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
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Mother’s Day Metta
I sat down to write this Mother’s Day essay on Wednesday, April 21—the morning after George Floyd’s murderer was convicted on all charges. Instead of the upbeat post I intended to create, it feels crucial to acknowledge the gravity of this moment. Along with feeling relieved that justice was served, I am also experiencing a tidal wave of shame and heartbreak over the cruelty and dehumanization that Black Americans have been forced to endure for centuries.
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