Today I’m sharing an essay I wrote three years ago that first ran in Spirituality & Health magazine about changing my relationship with death. When I “assigned” myself this topic, 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 helped me to discover that holding death close is a powerful way to wake up to life.
Read MoreOn September 1, two days before my mother Edith passed away on her 96th birthday, I remained glued to her bedside. Treasuring our final hours together, I soothed her with words, song and touch. I wanted her to feel safe, bathed in love and gratitude.
Read MoreWhile on vacation this week, I’m sharing a short poem by my father about different approaches to life, and the wisdom of allowing things to be just as they are.
Read MoreWhen my beloved Zen teacher, Katherine Thanas, passed away twelve years ago, I booked a session with energy healer Hilary Nichols to help me process my grief over this significant loss. After guiding me into a deeply relaxed state, Hilary asked me to think about Katherine and identify a quality of hers that I loved and wanted to always remember by fostering it within myself. Katherine’s hands instantly came to mind—hands that touched everything with full attention and gentle reverence.
Read MoreOn the heels of my blog Lessons from Leo V, I’m happy to share another dog-focused-post that first ran four years ago—a parody essay in response to my original Lessons from Leo essay that never fails to make me laugh.
Read MoreMy father, Mendek Rubin, grew up in a little town in Poland between the two world wars. When my daughter interviewed him for an elementary school project about immigration and asked him what surprised him most when he first came to America, he answered, “I couldn’t believe that people ate dessert every day and didn’t think anything of it.”
Read MoreLeo—my family’s extraordinarily sweet and quirky fox-colored lab—turns five on Sunday, which means it’s time for the fifth installment of “Lessons from Leo”! Leo joined our family in November 2019, right before the COVID pandemic slammed the world.
Read MoreLast week, I shared a story about my father’s spirit visiting me a few hours before he passed away. One of the messages he came to impart was that I shouldn’t be afraid to let my light shine. Although I feel a little self-conscious sharing this, the truth is, we are all beings of boundless light.
Read MoreMy exposure to spirits from other realms started early in life. Growing up, my parents were spiritual seekers in search of effective ways to mend their emotional wounds and find meaning in their lives. In 1970, when I was six, they discovered a group called the “Pathwork” whose members were devoted to learning teachings transmitted by the “Guide.”
Read MoreMy mother, Edith Rubin, passed away on Tuesday, September 3. It was her birthday, the 96th anniversary of the day she was born. My mom’s transition was surprisingly beautiful. During her final days, my mother embodied a love so pure and powerful, it felt as if it magically cleansed away the suffering of the past and she could finally be experienced in her full glory.
Read MoreMy father, Mendek Rubin, saw life as a school. He believed that we all come to planet earth to grow in wisdom, love, and joy, and that suffering can serve a higher purpose because it motivates us to change.
Read MoreWhen I was 28 and pregnant with my second child, I engaged a hypnotist to help me cope with my escalating fears around giving birth and the health of my unborn baby. Far from feeling more confident after having completed this momentous act once before, I had post-traumatic anxiety because my first birth had been extremely difficult for me, both emotionally and physically.
Read MoreWhile on vacation this week, I’m sharing a short poem my father wrote about how nature can offer us boundless wisdom about how to navigate our lives with more freedom, strength, peace, and joy.
Read MoreMy dad created hundreds of poetic affirmations throughout his life to foster feelings of love and happiness, and he read them over and over again as part of his healing process. His goal was to liberate himself from habitual thought patterns that led to suffering, and instead whole-heartedly embrace all that brought him joy and delight.
Read MoreI recently discovered a wonderful book about mindfulness that had been hiding on my top shelf for over a decade, How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness. It was written by Jan Chozen Bays, MD—a pediatrician, meditation teacher, and abbess of the Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon. Many of the mindfulness practices she shares were explored and refined in community with her students.
Read MoreToday I’m sharing a Take a Moment micro-meditation—“Sense Your Body”—paired with a quote from Jill Bolte Taylor: “Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think.” A Harvard-trained neuroscientist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a severe hemorrhage to the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996.
Read MoreIn last week’s blog, Lessons in Loving and Grieving, I shared some beautiful poems by Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, as well the origin story of our special friendship that blossomed during the final months of beloved wife’s life in 2010. Elliot and Tey had been married for 50 years, and it was a slow process to heal from the impact of her passing.
Read MoreToday I want to share some beautiful poems written by my friend Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts—a wise man and gifted poet whom I grew close to fourteen years ago, during the final months of his wife Tey’s life. I first met Tey when I became a Zen student at the Monterey Bay Zen Center in 1993. She warmly embraced me when I felt like an excluded outsider amidst the tightly knit group of seasoned students.
Read MoreToday, I’m sharing one of our “Take a Moment” micro-meditations called, “Connect with Your Heart,” paired with a wisdom-packed quote by Deepak Chopra: “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.”
Read MoreMy husband Drew and I moved onto the two-and-a-half-acre heirloom raspberry farm that we still call home right before 4th of July weekend in 1984, which makes this coming week our 40th anniversary of putting down roots that still remain strong. From the first day the two of us city kids from Manhattan took over the farming operation after a quick tutorial by the outgoing farmer, we knew that keeping the plants healthy and well-nourished was our primary responsibility.
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