Category: Bridge
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Are There Really Only Two Types of People?
That’s something that I have believed for many years – givers and takers. You are probably thinking right now which one you think you are. Some people seem to move through the world asking, What can I get from this? Others seem almost constitutionally wired to ask, What can I give and contribute? We tend to know which…
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The Conversation You’re Having Before the Conversation Even Starts
Do you ever stop to wonder why we spend so much time preparing for a conversation leaving little room to be truly present in the conversation? Think about how often we do this. You’re driving to work and already having the meeting. You’re in the shower explaining yourself to your spouse. You’re walking toward someone’s…
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Why Is It So Hard to Let Someone Be Wrong About You?
Think about that. We all do it. And we do it so often we don’t notice. We are constantly on guard to prevent it and when it happens, it consumes our attention through worry and doom-casting. And when someone does get you wrong, there is a sudden and almost irresistible urge to “clear this up.”…
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The Practices of Remembrance
If you’ve read the previous essays, you already know I believe the veil isn’t built all at once. It accumulates. Layer by layer. Every disappointment. Every fear. Every certainty. Every adaptation that once helped us survive. Which raises another question. If the veil naturally thickens… what thins it? I have come to believe humanity has…
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The Witness and the Wheel
There is a part of you that has been working tirelessly for as long as you have been alive. It learned to anticipate danger before you knew what danger was. It learned which words earned approval. Which mistakes carried consequences. Which parts of yourself felt safe to reveal. And which parts were better kept hidden.…
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The Forgotten Sun
I have a suspicion. Not about ancient wisdom. About ourselves. I suspect most people spend the first decade of their lives becoming who they are… …and the next several decades becoming someone else. Not intentionally. Lovingly. Patiently. Almost invisibly. We begin life remarkably authentic. Watch a young child long enough and you’ll notice something adults…
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Identity
I’ve been thinking about the word identity lately. It’s one of those words we rarely question. We’re told to find it.Protect it.Express it.Stay true to it. But what if we’ve misunderstood what identity is for? I wonder if one of the greatest sources of suffering is that we build our identity around the last place we stopped…
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The Light the Branches Seek
What Truth Actually Is In my last essay, I proposed that wisdom grows sideways. Not upward. Not through certainty. Not through accumulating answers. But through branching. Through curiosity. Through the willingness to remain open long enough for new perspectives to emerge. But that leaves an obvious question. What are the branches reaching toward? What is…
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Part 9 – When Yoga Becomes a Threat to Control
Yoga is harmless when it remains exercise. Stretching.Flexibility.Fitness.Mobility.Aesthetic wellness. But historically, yoga was never just physical movement. It was a system designed to help human beings become less reactive to their own minds. And that changes things. Because a person who learns how to observe thought instead of immediately obeying it becomes harder to manipulate…
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Part 5 – The Yamas Were Never Rules
Most people have never even heard of the Yamas and Niyamas. Even many people who practice yoga regularly. Somewhere along the way, modern yoga became almost entirely associated with movement—poses, stretching, mobility, fitness, appearance. But beneath the physical practice sits one of the oldest psychological and philosophical frameworks ever created. The Yamas and Niyamas. And…