An Abundance of Trails Boulder is known for its abundance of hiking trails—up into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, or further east for flatter terrain. Mount Sanitas, Shanahan Ridge and the Anne U. White trail are among my current favorites; and I’ve visited them even more often over the past year, with outdoor activities considered among the safest. Some trails are loops. Some are …
Practice Notes
Lemon, Lottery, Black-Eye: Exploring Connections Between Thought & Action
I’ve been contemplating anew the relationship between thoughts (i.e. internal talk and imagery) and actions (i.e. events within the physical body and external world)—curious, in particular, about causal mechanisms and the role of something we might call choice, intention, will or volition in actualizing (or vetoing) such causal connections. To tease out some of the possibilities, let’s consider …
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Practice Notes: At the Gym
One of the things that I missed the most, during the early months of the pandemic, was going to the gym. For many years I’ve enjoyed an ever-evolving form of weight-training that typically interweaves a bit of qigong, some yoga asana, some spontaneous dancing ~ with the actual free-weight or circuit training. So, when suddenly all the gyms and recreation centers closed, this was a sad moment. …
Practice Notes: A Bird In Hand
The well-known adage—A bird in hand is worth two in the bush—is typically used to encourage being grateful for what we already have, rather than pining for something currently out of reach. Putting aside, for the moment, the usefulness of such advice, let’s utilize the imagery itself to explore the notion of separation … Experiencing & Identifying the Birds Imagine I have a bird—say, a …
Practice Notes: Alicorn
Was thinking of unicorns the other day—curious, in particular, about whether their one horn was also called a “unicorn.” It made sense to me that this would be the case, but I wasn’t certain, so set off to explore … A few Googles later, here’s what I had learned: The root of the word unicorn is the Latin adjective unicornis (having one horn)—from uni (one) and cornus (horn). The horn …
The Body Politic
Nature's intelligence shines clearly in her choice to protect, within various organisms, what is most valuable. Consider, for instance, the human body: Its brain is nestled within a sturdy skull, and the spinal cord within the fluid stronghold of the spinal column. The ribcage forms a protective barrier around other vital organs—heart, lungs, kidneys and spleen. And this is wise! Now, …