Chris Wallach
Some people are able to focus, laser-like, on one thing—athletes, musicians, scientists. For Chris Wallach, it’s mindfulness. It’s a gift. It’s a talent she’s deliberately cultivated over the last many years. It’s a whole set…
Category: Friends
Sempre Avanti
Dear CaterinaWhat I want— To mediate with you for 60 minutesAnd not a peep from me Our eyes closed I’ll silently chantA mantra to you, for you Quelle surprise … I missed youAnd often did…
Share the Wealth: Writing with Yael
#1Last Night’s Email from Jessica Flier I write, becauseFirst and foremost, I must!But also – because,Of you.To take the broken heart and expose itbring the carefully concealed underbelly to the surfaceresisting the urge to hide…
Andrew Wimmer
Advocate of Whitmanian adhesiveness, instigator of Stop Torture Now, critic of power and its minions, exemplar of generosity and hospitality par excellence, Andrew Wimmer has enriched and expanded my life for 25 years. You’ll come…
Share the Wealth on Sunday 28 August: A Student, a Friend, a Teacher
“Appreciation is the sacrament.”—Allen Ginsberg Year after year, my understanding of “wealth” expands. I’ve been hosting these events for 10 years now, and it’s only today that it occurred to me to address the crucial…
Share the Wealth Sunday 31 July: Celebrating Mary Oliver
Last night in Our Good News class, Dianne Lee read Wild Geese to us. This led me to think it would be worthwhile to invite fans of Mary Oliver to do likewise this Sunday night:…
Sari
Last night at Medina Mediterranean Grill, I had a farewell dinner with Sari Al-Thubyani before he headed home to Saudi Arabia. We met in the Maryville parking lot on the first day of school in…
A Merton Hour with Liz Burkemper: Fourth and Walnut
In the waning light of the Buck Moon, let us read and reflect together on Thomas Merton’s moment of enlightenment at the corner of Fourth and Walnut (from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander). What is a…
Yoga Sutras Exchanges with Yael
Concentration, meditation, and pure contemplation focused on a single object constitute perfect discipline. 3.4—Barbara Stoler Miller, translation of Yoga Sutras Notes/Connections 1.Ekāgratā, noun, Sanskrit. One-pointedness, doing only one thing at a time, concentrating upon a…
Thuy
I first met Thuy Khuu in 2006 when she took my Social Justice class at Saint Louis University. Born in Vietnam, she moved to the US at the age of eight with her parents, sister and brother. …