There are people in the world who, at first glance (or second, or third), don’t seem to me to deserve positive regard. At all. Maybe there are people like that for you, too. But in an ancient tale, five people are traveling through the forest: the leader, their beloved, a friend, a stranger, and a wicked person. The group is attacked, and one person must be sacrificed in return for safety for the rest. Whom should it be? The wicked person, if we’re being just? The leader themself, if they’re alt...
Aug 15, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 497
Even when my intellect and emotional life feel like they’re in tune, I still have so many old, internal, tangles in my mind. And in any given moment, those tangles can cause me to tense up, grab hold, or turn away. My tangles were probably formed a long time ago. Daily practice helps me to see them more clearly, and to begin, slowly and playfully, to untangle them. Practice that’s oriented towards connecting with and generating good will for myself and everyone, feels especially helpful. Which m...
Aug 07, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 496
What happens for you when your body or mind signals that it’s time to relax, and you pay attention to the signal? From a Netflix perspective, it might be just that: turn something on; turn off all the rest. That seems legit – I do it plenty. From a mindfulness perspective, though, relaxation is different. It’s letting go. For me, it’s a few minutes in stillness, watching thoughts, emotions, and sensations arise, and lovingly letting them go. It’s a light touch, a commitment to go easy with each ...
Aug 01, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 495
I feel like we’re trying, every day, to be kind, and ethical, and to serve well. We’re even taking the time to cultivate these qualities. And I also feel like when we fail, it’s hard. And even harder to turn towards the situation with clarity. What gets in the way, for me, is justification and denial. And that’s when I slide backwards. Not because my “fail” is terrible, although it might be. But because I lose sight of the positive. Forget about all the goodness. And when that happens, it’s easi...
Aug 01, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 493
Pretty difficult moment, and here we are at the 4th of July. How many more of these will we celebrate? But that’s not so much my question. My question is more about how I can do my best to be kind and to provide whatever benefit I can in a divided world. And also about how I can bring kindness to myself when I fail. Happy Independence Day tomorrow. See you on today’s Wake Up Call, and stay safe out there.
Jul 04, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 494
In Zimbabwe, there’s almost 90% unemployment. In South Africa, there are the remnants of apartheid. America has cancelled US AID to the poorest of poor, and is about to tax a huge lifeline: money that gets sent home. Conditions on this amazing continent are not easy, to say the least. And through it all, to a person, the Africans we’ve met, from so many countries on this patchwork continent, are kind and loving and generous. No matter that we come from the west, or from comparative wealth, or ha...
Jun 05, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 492
I wonder about the power of generosity to set the tone of the law, or change it. Right now, we’re everyone to their corner and then knives out. What if we could be passionately on the sides of clients, causes, justice, but in a different way - not with a classic, take no prisoners approach, but with generosity? And with faith that the choice to do that would be seen as skillful, not weak? In a way generosity seems anathema to our work. In another way it seems like a shift we desperately need. Th...
May 17, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 491
Not much can change on the global scale, or even in my community (or even in my house), if I’m not thoughtful and intentional about my own personal behavior. I know that. You probably know that, too. But I’d also say, not much can change if I’m not thoughtful and intentional in a specific way : by being a little (or a lot) more generous; by committing, and making sure, that nothing I say or do will cause harm; and by taking the time, no matter how busy I am, and no matter how much the world thro...
May 09, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 490
Recently I said something snarky and it got back to the person.For the whole day, I dreaded what would happen. When the worst did happen, I felt even worse: a slow, painful remembering of how imperfect I am, despite all the striving. And of how perfection is not even a thing, no matter how much I strive. In a funny way, dread helped me. In fact, dread was the most helpful thing. Without dread, I wonder if I’d even have noticed, let alone cared. But with dread, and after making peace with dread, ...
May 01, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 489
I hear a lot about sending love to humans, being kind and appreciative and compassionate to teachers, loved ones, friends…even enemies. I hear less about sending love to the earth. Yet of all beings (if the earth is a being, and isn’t she?), doesn’t the earth deserve love, too? Doesn’t she deserve appreciation, and for once, instead of extracting from her, for us to give her our best, our love, our kindness, every good thing we’ve got? Seem like it’s the least we can do.
Apr 25, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 488
Are we “cultivating” love, compassion, and joy, or do we already have plenty and just need to access it? If we have plenty, and just need to learn how to access it, what’s in the way of doing that? For me, it’s wanting to hold onto the things that are working, and wanting all the really awful moments to end: all that wanting for things to be different, instead of learning to be “in” love right in this (imperfect) present. Which makes me wonder: if that’s true for me, is it true for everyone? And...
Apr 18, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 487
There’s “ordinary” news: market whiplash; leadership/not leadership; greed, hatred, and delusion. But there’s sweet news, too: the child of a friend and benefactor who cleans houses for living - a child who’s been planning to be a lawyer since they were five - got into Princeton undergrad with a full ride.Princeton, full ride, with a solid foundation of love and goodness underneath them: leadership in the making. In the middle of the muck (from the incredibly hard work of scrubbing toilets) a tr...
Apr 11, 2025•16 min•Season 9Ep. 486
When I feel committed, it gives me purpose, energy, direction. But to fulfill my commitment, especially if someone else is committed to the opposite cause, I need to understand all angles, all sides. I need to not let disdain and scorn and hate get in my way It's a lot like practicing law. Attachment feels different. It feels like a clingy state. There’s something I want, I think I know why,and I’m sure I know best. I’m not learning, not open, and often, not understanding. There’s a tightness - ...
Apr 04, 2025•18 min•Season 9Ep. 485
Signaling that we’re mindful, whether we’re speaking, writing, posting, or messaging, is simple. There’s no lying, denying, or blame. There’s no harm done. We’re remembering that what we say and do, matters. We’re not gossiping, just sharing what’s needed. And everything we say is kind. It’s simple, but maybe not easy. If it were, I feel like more of us would be mindful, whether we’re talking to friends or planning a campaign. It’s not easy, but it seems to me like a better standard of care, and...
Mar 28, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 484
What is an appropriate response when I get something I don’t want, or don’t get what I do want? Bully the person I “think” is responsible? Chastise, criticize, frighten, and ruin them I’m following the Chief Justice and going with no. At least from a mindfulness perspective - and I’m guessing this is obvious: it’s the age-old processes of listening patiently and with compassion, remembering we’re all in this together, and then making choices that don’t cause any harm, no matter how disappointing...
Mar 22, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 483
I don’t know what we can do in this moment except stay in the boat, and when we get tossed into the ocean, grab the hull and crawl back inside to safety. That’s how it feels to me right now. But I wonder if there’s another way to safety. Maybe it’s too odd of an idea, but what if we could create peace in the middle of chaos, by wishing everyone well. Not as a discernment practice (you deserve my well-wishes, you don’t) but by weaving a great cloak to wrap up into and protect ourselves with, and ...
Mar 14, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 482
Emotions are running high. Western mindfulness, quoting Rumi, says, ill will, anger, even hate: “Welcome and entertain them all….They may be clearing us out for some new delight.” The ancient mindfulness texts aren’t as big on this. They say, the path to liberation is to abandon ill will. Give it up! Let it go as if it’s burning your hand – because it is. Rumi sounds like a good, careful, idea. Letting go sounds even better, but a whole lot more radical. Dr. King said, when you’re right, you can...
Mar 08, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 481
If breath is the focus, the anchor, refuge from an uncertain world, then maybe love is the antidote. I’m not saying I know much about love other than that it feels absent in so many places, and crucial in even more. I do know that love isn’t about two (or three or four) humans and our stary-eyed moments. It's about finding some way to keep our hearts open, available, and un-barnacled. It's about going down into the deep, to the belly of this remarkable vessel we call home, and ever so gently and...
Mar 01, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 480
I’m wondering about patience these days: accepting that things are what they are. I’ve studied and tried to practice that kind of patience with friends and family and colleagues and students and the everyday vicissitudes of life, and even with myself. And all of that’s one thing. But then there’s the news. And Anthony Romero’s suggestion (he runs the ACLU) that if all else fails, “we may have to shut down the country.” If patience is about accepting how things are, is it also about waiting to se...
Feb 21, 2025•21 min•Season 9Ep. 479
This isn’t a moment when I can pay attention all the time: sometimes I just need to turn away, or walk away. But whether I’m engaged or disengaged, wisdom and love have their place. The question I’m working with is, how do I meet each moment with three wise intentions: to let go of wanting things to be different, because right now, they just are how they are; to be kind and loving, no matter what; and to have compassion for the wild cast of characters living on, and running, the planet right now...
Feb 14, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 478
When I think of faith, it’s often faith in someone or something. But these days I’m thinking of faith in terms of believing that if I keep practicing, and we all keep practicing, then we’ll know the appropriate response, meaning, the right thing to say or do. The right thing in our day-to-day lives, for sure. But also the right thing in a bigger sense. In other words, faith that all of this sitting in silence and filling the space with kindness, will give us the wisdom to know the appropriate re...
Feb 07, 2025•21 min•Season 9Ep. 477
I have these moments when I feel like I should be doing more. Or at least doing something. But right now I’m not sure what to do, or how, or when. So instead, right now, for now, I’m taking care of myself. I’m practicing, I’m spending time in nature, I’m spending time with friends and family and the puppy. Doing less. Resting up. Taking refuge. But there will come a time when what to do, and how, and when, will become clear. And when that time comes – when there’s a crack and the light starts to...
Jan 31, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 476
There are two ways I can see to relate to the world right now, if this is a moment that feels distressful. One is to be bothered by the world and also by the distress, and to work from that perspective… possibly with success, but also with dismay, disapproval, disdain. The other is to not be bothered by anything, not even distress, and to be kind to ourselves and everyone else, remembering that it’s possible to welcome everything and still fight with every ounce of our being for love, and justic...
Jan 24, 2025•19 min•Season 9Ep. 475
I care, and then I turn away. I get busy, or I lose interest, or the crisis stops affecting me directly or never did, and I let my attention slip away. I’m being honest, but I’m not glad about it, because what I really want is to keep my heart open, and keep my attention focused on whoever I can support. Not by losing myself or getting overwhelmed or letting my own wellbeing slip, but by creating enough space in my heart and mind to remember that caring for others and caring for myself are not d...
Jan 16, 2025•22 min•Season 9Ep. 474
I feel like I spend a lot of time – too much time – thinking I understand. Maybe we all do, even when we know everyone’s understandings are different. At the same time I think most of us know there’s a lot we can’t see. It feels helpful to keep that in mind, and to keep an open, “don’t know” mind, and be learning and surprised by each moment. Because even when the surprises aren’t good, at least we know that any moment now, there’ll be a new moment, or a new perspective, or a new way of seeing, ...
Jan 11, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 473
We could say that, depending on our political beliefs, beliefs about climate emergency, relationships to inequity, inner and outer resources, and what comes our way, our 2025 theme – the quality of heart and mind we’ll be working with and cultivating - is a forgone conclusion. But what if we don’t say that? What if we chose our theme, intentionally and regardless? Decide that this year our theme will be patience, for example, or connection, or enough-ness? What if each of us takes some time, and...
Jan 03, 2025•20 min•Season 9Ep. 472
Because there is always faith. It might be faith in our abilities. It might be faith in the wisdom that’s available to us every once in a while. It might be faith in cause and effect: the way that, when we express frustration, no one is happy, and when we express love, people care. Or it might be faith that the earth will take care of herself, No matter what we humans cook up, or, if that’s too big, that this day will dawn, or if even that’s too big, that, when we breathe in, in the next moment,...
Dec 27, 2024•20 min•Season 8Ep. 471
Sometimes I naturally notice the calm and peacefulness of the closing of the year. More often there’s so much going on, either in my own life or around me, that I feel restless, worried, a kind of agitation of body and mind that clouds my thinking and makes it difficult to settle. For me the thing that helps most is creating space: space to breath, in the middle of a busy day, time for a walk, indoors and out (especially out, no matter how freezing). There’s something about being in nature, no m...
Dec 21, 2024•20 min•Season 8Ep. 470
Sometimes I have an endless supply of energy. But there are also times when my mind is sluggish, not bright. Life feels exhausting or boring or blah. Does this happen for you? The good thing is, when I turn my attention to the blah feeling itself, my mind wakes up. I can see how sluggish I feel, but I can also see that it’s temporary, and even get interested in it, as yet another fascinating state of mind. When all of this happens, I also try to appreciate (with varying degrees of success) what ...
Dec 14, 2024•19 min•Season 8Ep. 469
I have this image of myself as being mindful, sitting above the fray. In my dreams. The truth is, I’m not above the fray at all, because the fray is my own mind. For example, it’s never my intention to be blindsided by hate or greed. But I do get blindsided - in the sense that when they show up, I can’t see. My clarity is gone. They are the fray. So I do what I can, like I’m guessing we all do. For me that means trying to notice hate and greed before I’ve acted on them; once they arrive, staying...
Dec 06, 2024•20 min•Season 8Ep. 468
