“Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end. Only this present moment exists, full of bitterness, full of sweetness, and I rejoice in it all.” ~Nikos Kazantzakis – The Saviors of God I am feeling so deeply blessed to be alive in the middle of this lifetime. […]
Tag: family
They left Belarus in 1923 and the good life that they had created. Times had changed and the place of their home was no longer one in which they could remain. Just as I am departing now on this train to Minsk, my ancestors too left Vitebsk, six of them including my grandmother crammed into […]
I’m on an airplane to Belarus and I find myself a bit teary. Not quite sure why, but it just feels like I’m feeling the sadness of my family for having been such a long time away. A return to this place is assuredly bittersweet in the hearts of my people. My grandmother Sonia Breinin […]
We are to a large extent what our parents make of us. While of course we are all magnificently unique beings, and have varying degrees of agency in terms of how we live our lives, it is hard to deny the effect that our upbringing has on the eventualities of our beliefs and ultimately our […]
Jomsom to Kagbeni I Love spaciousness. My soul loves being in the middle of vastness. Something in me very simply relaxes. This feels like the most amazing place in the world. It may well be, or perhaps it’s that my mind simply confuses perfection, which I find here, with penultimacy. I’ve just begun my trek […]
I’m shaken from the recent earthquake in Nepal and I’m not even there right now. My stomach has beeb twisted and a low-level but pervasive anxiety seems to be coursing through my system. I can barely begin to imagine how it must feel to be there. The feeling of not being able to trust the […]
Places don’t have memories. Memories of places belong to the people who hold those memories. When they forget, or die, the memories which they hold die along with them. This doesn’t have to be a glum realization, but there is something about it which feels a little disappointing. A story. After the visit, my uncle […]
I’m back at my home now in California and I’ve been feeling very tired since my return. I think it is a combination of a few things: Jet lag and not sleeping enough this past week A little bug I picked up on the plane Travelers emotional exhaustion It’s the last item on the list […]