Author: Mark J. Chmiel

A Carpe Diem Reminder

The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform….

The Business of Wisdom & Virtue

But our ideas are more subjected to choice; we can call them before us, and command their stay, we can facilitate and promote their recurrence, we can either repress their intrusion, or hasten their retreat….

Wake Up!

 I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. –Nhat Hahn There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though…

Be Grateful to Everything

In order to grow, you need sorrow; in order to become loving, you very often need distress, and turmoil is often required to release  your deeper resources. Unless you have suffered yourself, it is not…

Availability

The following is from an interview Mev did with Tereza Calvacanti in Brazil in 1990; it appeared in her 1994 book, The Struggle Is One: An important discovery is gratuity. That is, giving time and…

Don’t Wait till Later

If you think you have lots of time and many choices in your life, you don’t believe me when I say that you have to pay attention to every moment.  Maybe you will realize it…

Two Questions from Glenn Greenwald

Does anyone really believe that there are massive gaps — massive gaps –between the world view of multi-millionaire Nancy Pelosi and multi-millionaire Mitch McConnell, both of whom are married to people who also wield extreme…

A Mosaicist

  … Proust had never been able to finish any work of fiction because he lacked the story and point of view. He had at last found his structure, one that was to prove ideal…

Greta

Garbo had a stand-in who was identical to her, and who was said to have ‘everything that Garbo has except whatever it is Garbo has’. What Garbo had was a body that transmitted and received. It…