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Swapping Idols for Vanaprastha

“The first ashrama is brahmacharya, the period of youth and young adulthood dedicated to learning. The second is grihastha, when a person builds a career, accumulates wealth, and maintains a family. This second stage seems fairly straightforward and uncontroversial, but in this stage the Hindu philosophers find one of life’s most common traps: People become…

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All the Miracles

“To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings—it’s all a miracle. I have adopted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.” — Artur Rubinstein We get tired sometimes, and forget about miracles like being born at all, in this time, relatively healthy and of sound mind….

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Talkin’ to Myself

Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ oldSometimes I’d like to quitNothin’ ever seems to fitHangin’ aroundNothin’ to do but frownRainy days and Mondays always get me down— The Carpenters/Adam Williams, Rainy Days and Mondays Rainy days and Mondays never really drag me down. Sure, we’ve had way more rain than we should this season, while others…

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay.— Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay Halfway through another month as I publish this, and I shake my head at the magic…

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Being Alive

“People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.”— Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth We are most alive when we are actively engaged with the world. This can mean summiting…

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Significance Transcends

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing…

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The Layer Cake of Happiness and Purpose

“[There is an] age-old debate over two kinds of happiness that scholars refer to as hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonia is about feeling good; eudaimonia is about living a purpose-filled life. In truth, we need both. Hedonia without eudaimonia devolves into empty pleasure; eudaimonia without hedonia can become dry…. I think we should seek work that…