It’s October so yes, the worldis dying but I always thinkI have another monthat least, maybe two,to marvel in the middleof fall’s kaleidoscope,walking the fractal tranceof kindergarten yellows and(somehow!) iridescent pinks.But then one good windcomes in off the distant Pacific and trees that just yesterday dripped with dazzlestand skeletized, strippedof their abundance for thepromiseless months to come.I… Continue reading October
Author: James A. Pearson
A Door in the Dead End
How loss, heartbreak, and failure open your way to the second half of life In late September of 2013, an old friend forwarded me a mass email. That’s not something I’d usually remember 10 years later. But it came during a month when my life was going into full collapse. And it had quite a… Continue reading A Door in the Dead End
This Is Not the End
This is notthe end. News that may come as a salve in the dry cold of winter, or like an unwelcome tugon the hammock of August.However finishedyou’re afraid you areor wish you could be,remember: this quiet earth resting beneath youis racing around the sun,teaching your bodythe ancient dance of seasons.You are carriedwith a million yearsof faith: that there is more in… Continue reading This Is Not the End
All I Mean – a poem for healing
All I Meanby James A. Pearson There are a thousand woundsbut all I mean by healingis this: that you learn to hold yourselfin exactly the wayyou were never held. Here’s the homework I got an online course I’m taking this week: To set a notification on my phone that pops up several times a day… Continue reading All I Mean – a poem for healing
Self-Compassion Poem
Self-Compassionby James A. Pearson Remember that a lakecan freezeand unfreezea thousand times and feel no shame. A coach I worked with a couple years ago often reminded me that life is a cycle of forgetting and remembering. Over and over. One day you feel close and connected with yourself, with the world. The next day… Continue reading Self-Compassion Poem
The Mud Season
Patience darling,it’s still too earlyto trust the seasonwith that tenderness you holdin your globed hands. I can feel it, too—the yearning to plantyour fingers in the warming earthand release what’s so alive in youinto the scrum of all life. But the ground’s still frozen beneath all this mud.And winter on its way outwill take with it… Continue reading The Mud Season
The Survival Dance and the Sacred Dance
How to balance livelihood and longing, and discover your true work in the world. In July of 2014 I moved to Seattle and got a job. It was a boring, pay-the-bills sort of job, which was what I needed at the time. A year earlier I’d been living in Uganda, running a social business I… Continue reading The Survival Dance and the Sacred Dance
The Hidden Invitation of Burnout
How to practice “the antidote to exhaustion” when rest isn’t enough Ten years ago I crossed the finish line of my first and only marathon. I said a quick ‘hi’ to some friends waiting there for me, then promptly walked away and broke down in tears. It wasn’t just the distance or exhaustion. The truth… Continue reading The Hidden Invitation of Burnout
Caminante
by Antonio Machado, my translation Walker, only your footprintsare the path, and nothing else;Walker, there is no path,you make a path by walking.Your walking becomes the path,and when you look backyou see a trail you can neverset foot on again.Walker, there is no pathexcept wakes upon the sea. Eight years ago I packed everything I… Continue reading Caminante
Worker Bees
I wonder if you can pause—just for a moment—the emergency of your lifeand step outinto the quiet of the world. Hear how gently it conveysthe delicate thread of birdsong,how quickly it can soothethe rupture of a passing jet.Feel its vast, smiling invitationto rest back intothe person you’ve been all your life. Listen now–the poppies burstingout… Continue reading Worker Bees