Tag Archives: meditation

Book Review:  Zen Under Fire: How I Found Peace in the Midst of War by Marianne Elliot

After working for two years for a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip and six months for another organization in Kabul, New Zealander Elliott finds what she refers to as her dream job with the U.N. in Afghanistan. She … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer

Aflame is a celebration of Iyer’s decades-long infatuation with a Benedictine retreat in an isolated spot in the hills above the ocean at Big Sur. In his recent book The Half-Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Iyer searches the world … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks

On May 27, 2019, Memorial Day, Australian writer Geraldine Brooks received a phone call telling her that her sixty-year-old husband, Tony Horwitz, who was away on a book tour, suddenly collapsed on a sidewalk in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and died. … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer

Fogged in by a spate of loneliness, I decided to deal with the gnawing, empty feeling by turning the negative into positive. To accomplish this, I conducted a search for books on solitude, and compiled a list of about a … Continue reading

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The Dark Night of a Writer’s Soul (Revisited in Light of the Pandemic)

Recently I wrote an essay called “The Great Opportunity, or, Turning Lemons into Lemonade During a Pandemic.” In it, I encouraged those who were isolating themselves while avoiding exposure to the coronavirus to develop their creativity by writing, painting, sculpting, … Continue reading

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Life Is Entertaining

This essay came about because of a terrible commercial I’ve been seeing lately on various TV and internet sites.  In it, a certain A-list Hollywood actor walks around a city, and as he does, scenes such as those that appear … Continue reading

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