Moments end, and lives end, and marriages end, and sometimes deer take their last step and stop walking...

I may create my own fiction, but a city doesn't give you an iced up cupcake. It is raw batter.

I knew exactly who she was, and I had that incredulous sensation when you recognize how vital parts of your sensibilities are mirrored exactly in another, and you can't believe it. That what had been alien was actually solace.

It is a very powerful practice to journal with positivity and gratitude. When I write this way, I am writing affirmations for myself each time I write. The more I tell myself these positive messages, the more I see their truth emerge in my life – the power of positive thought and intention.

If you would have told me when I was 17 years old that my life would look like it does today, I would have laughed at you. I would have laughed right in your face...

When I’m standing around at a club or event, water in hand, feeling as uncomfortable as all hell, I notice it. When I’m having sober conversations in a not-so-sober environment and I long to be as drunk as the person I’m talking to, I acknowledge that. I take note of it. I sip my water. I laugh at myself and at my surroundings, and I move on.

I have buried my heart With all of its bruised longing for you In a blue forest, under a bed of twigs And things that rustle, snap and sing --

Presidential elections in the US rarely produce interesting unpasteurized candidates, but some of the issues that come up inadvertently during the endless campaigns often raise thought-provoking considerations. What is Leadership? was the leading one this year.

I toast your name and drink your likeness. Time, an accordion, making music that tickles and yawns. As it exhales your dreams, and stretches the kinks out of its back.

I am unearthing deep caverns of unattended emotional turmoil, but as I find the courage to wade into them, I also create openings that allow them the freedom to flow towards the surface, creating space to be filled with whatever I decide to tend. And most surprising of all, I am discovering someone I like, someone I can accept, and someone I actually admire, when it comes right down to her essence.

Although it wasn’t so long ago, and the questions and comments about my well being continue to require my attention, I am no longer in the throes of being a breast cancer patient. It is finally true after all. I am, on this very day, right now, unbelievably, thankfully, gratefully, at this moment in time, a cancer survivor.

Your authentic desire, which, since you were a child, has led you to what feels good, and right, and sustains your life and your will to live, is yearning for you to open wide to it... Your desire wants you to remember that it is your holy compass.

So trust in your heart, in both the known and unknown. Embrace every step of the journey from point A all the way to point Z. Even though our fears and worries might not completely vanish, remember that they can serve as teachers instead of foes.

To accept one’s body sounds like common sense but for many of us (Americans, women, people, almost everyone?) negative self-image is so pervasive in our psyches that we are unaware of it.

We must be prepared to look outside of the box and think for ourselves, creatively. Our practice becomes boldly and playfully straying off the path (physically and metaphorically) so that we might return to a place of natural curiosity that came so easily when we were kids, all without expectation or judgment.

For that one moment, that one heartbreaking snippet of a moment, I allowed myself to return to my first grief.

In silence, there is silence. In silence, there is music. In silence, there is love. In silence, there is the echo of love.

I now think that when you treat someone like an emotional security blanket and make them more special and important than everyone else in your life, you’re bound to create one hot co-dependent mess!

When we learn to accept change, we see that it’s truly beautiful; that amazing things unfold as we let go of our smallness and embrace the vastness of our potential.

I'm crying because I am very, very pissed off, and it is taking every ounce of my being to avoid throttling someone or saying something I will regret.

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." ~ Marcus Aurelius

I do not believe these gods are reserved to the meadows and mountains. They also wait in cafes, loll around the corner of buildings, dance in museums, hide in cobblestones, slide down the sides of skyscrapers, inspire impassioned conversation, frolic on small talk, and whisper the great secrets of civilization. The gods are in the great body of the city.

Throw out the wrapping, but be careful with the box. The box is your body.

I miss the delight in your smile and the praise you poured over me. Your words encouraging me to dare to become anything I wanted. I have a crack in my esteem that I patch from time to time with your positivity from my memory.

Empty yourself to the emptiness of this physical world. Purge until there is nothing left. Nothing other than the clean slate of surrender, a surrender of a different calling, a surrender to the quiet place that lies waiting inside you for your inevitable return.

Our fear of being judged can keep us locked on a path no matter how uncomfortable it feels. The truth is, the people who really care will support us no matter how many times we twist and turn through life’s maze. It is only our own demons that tell us to keep on buying the same clothes, even when they no longer fit.

Unafraid of loneliness, welcoming the task. Watch me. Hate me. Wish me well.

Finding possibility in the impossible, accepting the challenge when someone tells me I can’t do something, and going to bed at night knowing that my dreams with eyes wide open will always beat the dreams I see in my sleep.

"This world is but a canvas to our imaginations." ~ Henry David Thoreau

The world seems to be absorbed in a hedonistic rush to a more comfortable place with a more beautiful view occupied by more attractive people dressed in more expensive clothes and driving a more elite model car to a more private club to meet their friends who are just, well, better than yours.

I am incredibly fragile, yet my love for life, for myself and for others makes me unbreakable, maybe also unbrakeable (as in, unstoppable).

Raquy is the composer, Bünyamin is the inspired artist. They intertwine each other when they play and become one sound, one breath, moving together, the union of Shakti and Shiva! It’s a beauty to see.

What you need to know about me is that I am acutely aware that life is a privilege. My life is a privilege. I want to share that privilege with you.

Take back the power to savor your life; to listen to music without knowing why you should hate or love it, and dance any way you can if it moves you.

In the past, I would have asked for cool new clothes, computer games perhaps, and maybe makeup; this Christmas, my wishlist consisted just of books and pens. This year, the only thing I truly thirsted for was knowledge.

Distracted by deep emotional experiences that feed a ‘not good enough’ mind-scape we become distracted by negative internal dialogues. In return, plugging our energy circuits into beliefs that are untrue and drains our energy and power to be able to contribute to personal, community, and global change. All of this prevents many of us from discovering our worth, voice, and place in this world.

You will be okay. You will figure it out. You will love again. You will find your voice and forgive yourself for how long it took you. You will become brave. You will throw your hat in the ring. You will piece and stitch language in ways that only you can, eventually writing stories and essays and poems. You will bite your lip and muster your courage and let words fly out of your chest, like a flock of ravens taking wing.

It doesn't matter how long you have known someone; if it isn’t healthy, you are both a hostage and captor as is your counterpart. Your sick game continues with each of you playing either role until someone is strong enough to squeeze her sweat-stung eyes shut and pull the trigger before the last tear falls.

Overall I appreciate the gifts of foresight that come with being an old Soul, and the older I get, the easier it becomes to bridge the gap between it and my physical age.

Lying in a hospital bed, having just tried to kill myself, with the nurses setting up a private phone-line to cater for all the love flooding in for me from friends, showed me that I deserved to know a different way of being in the world.

I have a total love/hate relationship with social media. I love to share (overshare). I hate that I now take my phone absolutely everywhere. But overall, on the spectrum of attraction to social media, I am much closer to the Like button.

Love isn't created by doing; rather it is accessed, tapped into and unleashed, when we meet a kindred soul.

Love that radiates all frequencies. When you let love flow through you, you become more open to love. Love is infinite and can grow exponentially inside of you creating sensational vibrations. And then, just then, you will begin to feel love on a whole other level.

Yin and Yang. The Big Bang. Humanity’s birth. Halos golden. Shadows Red.

Life is a haunted house and fear is a badge of honor to be sought out at every opportunity. If you're not terrified, intimated and challenged on a regular basis, you are not growing.

"Living a life of introspection and inquiry won’t lead to a flash of clarity or quick satisfaction, but it is a powerful tool. Questions are tools by their very nature - they inspect, they pry and shine light in dark places."

I thought for a while about whether it was possible for me to sit and talk to her without really saying anything. I have been so good at this in the past, and I am still a master at it with so many others.

Relax and observe the subtle confidence and courage of a man who is eager to please.

Did you read about it?

Idiomatically, we pay attention. Just like we pay money and spend time. Attention exists in finite quantities. Like time and money, attention should be budgeted, managed and never squandered.

... Outsider by the shoreline, laughing at the inexorability of time of what the world has in store.

What if we didn't have to dive all the way in to full silence? What if we were allowed to approximate silence in a way that feels like a paper cut or a brush-burn, instead of a stabbing wound in the gut? Why must it be Total Silence, as though that's the only way magic happens?

The food source for your hunger lies within. You are the food source. Inquire Within.

There are many that believe when we leave this earth we go to heaven. Maybe we do. Maybe we don’t. Maybe we return as a rabbit. Let me show you my magic hat as I attempt to pull a rabbit out for you, and offer some thoughts that may change the direction you take as you review your travel plans.

At its most fundamental core, Yoga is a practice of using the physical to realize the divine.

Unexpectedness was the word I thought of, and it tasted sweet when I let my tongue tangle around its letters, keeping them together as coffee made the syllables float.

I want to talk to you about your traditions and have you share in mine. So go have a talk with your ancestors, the grandmothers and the grandfathers. And ask the stories that run in your blood to tell you. Because India is not the only place that has teachings on holistic medicine; they exist in all cultures and traditions.

Even my sadness is not permanent, in fact constantly changing the degrees, shapes, and tastes, moment by moment. If I am not able to notice the subtle changes of my grief, I must be simply dreaming unconsciously and unconscious dreaming is neither productive nor graceful.

You yearn to dissolve into and come back fully aligned, and it is here that you feel acquainted with the modern-day shaman, free-spirited gypsy and wandering naturalist. You experience parts of yourself that can only be likened to an expedition 20,000 feet beneath the sea. Treasure upon treasure flowing everywhere as in the night sky; all parts dance synergistically free.

I want to let go of all my worrying and scurrying and trying to be better...

This is the difference between professionals and amateurs. Professionals set a schedule and stick to it. Amateurs wait until they feel inspired or motivated.

What I do know, from my own Kundalini Yoga practice, is that whenever I bring awareness to my breath, something powerful happens. I become fully present to the moment.

She had lost her branch, the place of her perch, where a small bird feels mighty. Now, the giant leaves swarmed around her, and crunched beneath her little feet. She missed their rustling. She missed many things.

When you can’t ask the question because you already know the answer, so maybe you should go back to sleep in hopes that your dreams will take you somewhere closer to them or further from here -- or anywhere else.

The self who is young and vulnerable, walking free without clothes classifying him as rich or poor. Who laughs aloud at a funerals or sulk at weddings.

I recently had the dubious pleasure of interacting with certain members of the Yoga community, which only served to drive home the point that the ancient wisdom tradition had been appropriated, annexed and colonized, much like the cultural appropriation of Native American, Asian, African and other indigenous traditions by vendors of low-brow pop culture.

The sun, rising higher and higher, grants its energy to those patiently waiting on earth. The tree warms. The community of life surrounding its roots warms as well, giving more and more each day. Hope begins in the tree again.

While talking to a woman about a project, we had a tangential conversation about the diagnosis of children with ADD or ADHD, and pushing pills on them like a cure-all, when in fact, many of these children have a mind of over-stimulation from creative impulses.

Love looks like containment and abandon, and being met, right inside the wanting, an origami fortune teller splayed open and spilling out answers.

In spite of all our fertilizers, things don’t always go our way as nature has a different plans. Perhaps, just perhaps, it knows better than we do.