Featured in the current Tricycle Magazine (Spring 2025): an essay I wrote about my relationship with Monastic Yukon Grody. In particular, the article is about becoming the primary caregiver for this extraordinary man whom I had the privilege of knowing for 20 years.

Much gratitude to all my fellow monastics and caregivers over Yukon’s 6 month illness. We were quite a team. He was quite a buddha.

The title of this post was my original title for the essay.

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying an early summer pond-side campfire with about 10 marvelous individuals, ranging in age from 22 to 63. I’d recently decided to finally let go of a box that’s trailed me throughout all my moves containing virtually every letter I ever received. There comes a time. But rather than simply tossing them into a trash heap or whatever, I wanted to offer them to fire as a sign of respect, but also I suppose for deeper reasons having to do with birth and death.

The campfire started with just me and the younger members of the group, all just out of college. Most of my correspondence by mail, it turns out, took place when I was their age, give or take a couple years. It doesn’t feel like just yesterday anymore.

Here’s my Mountain Record review of a fantastic new book by butoh innovator Vangeline. For those interested in performative arts, dance, embodiment, Zen, or just butoh.

Here’s a piece I wrote for Mountain Record online about life under COVID lockdown at Zen Mountain Monastery.

>>> Lately I’ve been thinking. Years from now, everyone will speak of their life in quarantine, who they were with (if anyone) and how they occupied their time. But for now, and for a while to come, what many of us are reflecting on is where we were just prior. What was that life of easy mobility and carefree interaction? Where did it go? When will it be possible again? Although living in a Buddhist monastery grants me a stable predictability of schedule and community even through a pandemic, I’m also thinking of the lead up to the lockdown, bewildered by the difference.

One of the films I got to see at HotDocs this year was Planetary, a meditation on climate change and, well, on meditation itself. The 85 minute docu-essay combines stunning cinematography with an enchanting score and interviews with over two dozen philosophers, scientists, astronauts, Zen priests, Tibetan lamas, and tribal elders. Director Guy Reid and his collaborators make a compelling case that our global ecological crisis cannot be solved without more people recognizing that we are all a part of the earth and not just on it.

To read the full review I contributed to Curator Magazine click HERE or below.

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