This Mama’s Dharma

I spent my twenties working very hard for peace. I worked very, very hard. Mainly, I tried to accomplish this through fighting with other people, trying to get them to understand that my militant leftist views were right while theirs were wrong. I was a fundamentalist against fundamentalism. I fought with [...]

It’s amazing how much “Sami stuff” has accumulated in the less than two years of his life. (A fair amount of it he never really needed to begin with.) I had been hanging on to the stuff out of some random dream that my marriage would survive, that I would have another baby [...]

It has been one crazy summer. Literally.
Thanks so much to everyone who has been checking in on me. Here’s a brief explanation as to why I’ve been so MIA. At the beginning of August, I went through a mini-”breakdown” which ended up being a terrific break-through (more about that later). I [...]

I am caught between exhilaration and fear around my decision to stay home with Sami. My exhilaration is at the thought of discovering the world with him, of sharing in the wonder of his everyday experience. The older he gets, the more I can show him, and the more fun it is to [...]

This morning my Sami, a boy’s boy, lover of diggers and trucks and cars and screwdrivers and all things traditionally masculine, discovered his stuffed animals.
It was a terribly sudden thing. He had not been interested in his teddy bears, despite several attempts on my part to introduce them into his experience. He would [...]

Whoa.
This samsara is something, isn’t it?
Thanissaro Bikkhu is a monk whose take on the dharma I like. He wrote an article on Samsara where he explains that Samsara literally means “wandering on.” That makes sense to me because I have always thought of Samsara as a process. The process of getting stuck, [...]

Thank GOD for wise women healers.
My acupuncturist worked on me tonight with such kindness and presence as I cried on the table. She did my favorite ear points for serenity, heart connection, personal power, hope, forgiveness, and connection to God. How I love that there are points for these human longings of mine, [...]

Tonight, I performed a somersault for the first time in many, many years.
In fact, I performed three.
Sami-ji was my inspiration. Isn’t he always?
How is it that one could forget the pure joy of a somersault?
I did! But now I remember!
Sami is much closer to it than I am. [...]

Sami is obsessed with the vacuum, our Kenmore Grab ‘n Go Pro. (No, I am not in any way affiliated with, or receiving compensation from, the Kenmore Corporation.) He’s also somewhat obsessed with the broom, but mainly it’s all about the vacuum for him.
“Vakoom! Vakoom!” is the first thing he says when he [...]