Who knows what 2022 will bring? Today is the anniversary of the January 6th assault on the U.S. capital. Last year, who could have predicted that?Sometimes I'm so sad or exhausted or afraid. I just want to take refuge. Do you ever feel that? There's just always so much going on.But what if refuge is right here, right now? What if the Wizard was right, and all we have to remember to do, to get home - to find refuge - is close our eyes, tap our ruby slippers together, and be present?

What's your most audacious intention for 2022? Think big. Think even bigger.Zen students chant, "Beings are numberless. I vow to save them all." What's your chant?What if your chant - your intention - is to end greed, hatred, and delusion? What if your intention is to save our beautiful planet? What if it's both? What if it's bigger than both?Let's see how big it is. Let's see where this goes.

This time of year - the end of the calendar year - always feels quiet, and sacred, to me. Maybe the holidays, maybe being with family, and this year, like the last two, also feels sacred and precious because things are once again, precarious.Last week I was wondering about all of that in terms of inter-connection. This week I'm wondering about it in terms of connection to self. Is it possible to tap into our own inner connection? Is it possible to get a little more connected not only to each other, but also to ourselves? As we do this with one another, seeing each other as beloved, can we also see ourselves the same way?

As we inch towards the end of 2021 without any idea what's next, in terms of the pandemic, the climate, or the political situation, I've been thinking about the importance of our practice.It feels like there's a big part about wellbeing - that's crucial. And, there's a lot more.Because we have the potential, as practitioners, to set an example, and even share directly, with those we work with, and with everyone we love, how to stay compassionate and open-hearted right in the middle of...everything.This Wake Up Call and the next two explore that question, which will take us to the end of this fraught, and strange, and challenging 2021 year.

There are so many times I've said something tinged with meanness, hostility, even violence. It's hard for me to write those words, but I know they're true.Do you see that in yourself?If you do, let's talk about how to say things differently, without judging or retaliating against ourselves. If you don't, maybe listen anyway.

One way to think about evil thoughts is to corral the mind and not let them in. Good luck with that.  Or I should say, I haven't had good luck with that. My own mind is capable of conjuring up evil thoughts without much provocation at all, then blithely letting them go forth and multiply.Here's another idea. What about literally crowding out the evil with the good? What if, instead of trying to corral our minds, we filled them with so many wholesome thoughts that there was no room for anything else?I can't say what happens because I'm definitely still working on it. On today's podcast I've shared a story about my own "evil" thoughts, and unpacked the practice of crowding them out as best I can. Enjoy.

It's always easier for me to be grateful to someone else than to be grateful for my own good heart. And yet we all have such good hearts.On today's Wake Up Call, which is prerecorded, I want to offer space and time for you to be grateful for your good and beautiful heart. I hope you give yourself that time and space.You can listen to today's recorded Wake Up Call here, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Gratitude again, this time with a few ideas.Because again, it's easy to be grateful for the good stuff.Or is it?Yes, and. And: it's also easy for me, anyway, to miss the good stuff. To take it for granted - to take people for granted - and to forget that we're just here for a minute.And to forget that because of that, now is the best time to say thank you. Today is the best day to be grateful. And out loud is the best way to do it.Plus there's good research on gratitude. And the bottom line is, it's good for us.I learned some new gratitude strategies and am trying them out. Sharing those in today's podcast. Enjoy.

Gratitude, that old topic. Really, I was thinking, there must be a new take.I could talk about how grateful I am for the people I love, the land that supports us, my mini-labradoodle, Bleue, who just turned 14..., but it's the hard stuff that makes gratitude more interesting.It's so much easier and in some ways, more natural, to complain about the hard stuff. Because it's hard.But then again, maybe that's a missed opportunity. Maybe the big shift looks something like finding ways to be grateful for the difficult people, the hopeless institutions, our own tangled, impossible minds.Maybe that's how the light gets through.

The ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi is all about the beauty of brokenness. When a vessel is cracked, or even smashed to bits, Kintsugi is about piecing it back together with gold. Far from being perceived as flawed, the vessel, in its brokenness, is then considered better than before, even luminous.What if mindfulness could help us to approach our own brokenness in this way? Just imagine the light...