My Zen Brain

Patient sun peeks sly Water falls rhythmic on planks Rays of heat explode

Intellectually though, I wondered if there wasn’t a distinct difference between using macro-muscles hitting a baseball as opposed to smaller muscle groups like I did when I was cleaning. I decided I would try this non-dominant hand experiment with a man’s most fundamental need and desire. The one men do almost every day. It’s all … Continue reading Going Southpaw, Part 3

I retired a career .300 hitter. It’s not as impressive as it sounds, but for me, it was all the validation I needed at the tender age of 12 to make the A team coach and all the jocks in my 8th grade class go suck eggs. I was arguably the least popular kid in … Continue reading Going Southpaw, Part 2

For all the research I’ve been doing on the intricacies of brain function, right hemisphere vs. left hemisphere and neuron connections and such, I had a moment two weeks day that has, once again, reinvigorated my fascination with neuroplasticity and how it effects what’s going on with the rest of our bodies. I mean, I’m … Continue reading Going Southpaw

My 2007 Hyundai Sonata has a sporadic sunroof. Most days it works just fine. But when it has been raining a lot in my town, the sunroof will open just fine, but then when I push the button to close it, it closes all the way, then thinks better of its decision and opens right … Continue reading Run Away! Run Away! Part 3

When Siddhartha Gautama sat in meditation for days and days in that seminal moment 2500 years ago, he did so beneath a bodhi tree. As in, the bodhi tree. The very same bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) is still alive in thriving at Bodh Gaya near Gaya, India. So I figured the very least I could … Continue reading Run Away! Run Away! Part 2

A week ago, I participated in my first Zen retreat (see what I did there with the title? See, cuz “retreat” in the context of combat and the Monty Python reference …) It was my first retreat since high school where I think the last retreat I went on (or at least the last one … Continue reading Run Away! Run Away!

See what I did there? Alright, I’ll admit that was a lame attempt at linking my conversion to Buddhism to the Tom Cruise movie Seven Years in Tibet. Honestly, I haven’t seen the movie and don’t intend to. That was just my attempt to use a play on a pop culture reference to rope you … Continue reading 7 Years in My Head

Alright, well he’s my elephant anyway. I recently posted about how the book The Zen of Recovery changed my life. On a lark, the day before, I had actually contacted the author of the book that taught me that my connection to God as I understood him didn’t have to be a mundane and faux … Continue reading Bagged the elephant