The opposite of stealing (or taking what is not given), is to give, unconditionally. Not stealing means not stealing time, but taking it and giving it back. It means giving as much time as is necessary to the task. It means not trying to cheat time by half-hearted multitasking, or by whiling time away with …
Author: carmen
Paean to the pomegranate
The pomegranate is the sexiest fruit in the world. Every seed bursting, sweet tart and blood red. Splitting one heavy red fruit was a seasonal ritual I shared with my dad. He taught me the trick to eat the pomegranate: you take a fat wedge and break it in two, exposing the gleaming surface of …
Israel
I went to the Kitchen Corner to buy a paring knife. I wandered up and down the aisles crammed with stationery and dish towels. I pondered all the paring knives on the wall, and as typical in such retail situations, got overwhelmed by the choices and freaked out by the copious packaging and decided to …
Talking to one of those guys
In these rainy slow bikeshop days one of my jobs is to call up everyone who bought a bike this summer and remind them that it is time to bring it in for a free warranty tuneup. Of course it’s not just a public service call (or as i like to call it, a summons …
What’s so zen about Zen?
What’s so Zen about Zen? I think, what makes Zen uniquely Zen is its insistence that everything is innately perfect and complete, with no need for adornment or improvement. Those stock-photo images of a smooth stone, a bamboo stalk, a dew drop on a leaf… they are zen clichés, but they do tell a story. …