Growing up, I resented my mother’s anxiety. I could feel it weighing on me, but I thought Aunt Tess’s story was funny. Aunt Tess – preparing to marry Uncle Nat, Mom’s adored, older brother – wanted Mom to feel she was gaining a sister. She invited Mom to lunch at Schrafft’s in Manhattan. That was a big deal, but Mom cancelled because it was raining. Mom didn’t like the rain. Aunt Tess thought it was hysterical and told the story many times. I’m still working on walking in the

I promised to try to say something about the Oneness of Life.   When asked what enlightenment was, my teacher, Bernie, always said it was “the realization and actualization of the Oneness of Life.” Realization was knowing that smoking was bad for your health; actualization was stopping smoking. Whenever he talked about the Oneness of Life, Bernie used the metaphor of the one body. We are all part of one body, like the right hand and the left hand. Intellectually, I understood

Remember, last time we were talking about worries and came up to the fears that lie beneath them. When we shed the stories which cloak our fears, we get behind the worries. We get to the bedrock. Sound easy? It takes practice. We are so addicted to our stories. We often have to keep asking, What am I really afraid of it? What’s really scaring me?   With practice, we get there. Fear. Now what? How do we work with the fear? A few years ago, I found a way. I picked up a Tibetan