I wake up in the morning with a head full of mosquitos, the sodapop fizz of doubt in my veins. The words of the ancient monk come to my mind: don’t be fooled! I force myself to sit upright, wash my face, light a candle and sit down on the cushion with my nattering gremlins. …
Just say yes
“Leave the door open to the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” –Rebecca Solnit (by way of Roshi Joan) I did not post a notice on the Lasqueti Island website. Even so, one day there arrived an …
A bike ride to Bellingham
One day last week I took the notion to ride to Bellingham, Washington. I’d never been there, and hey, it is a place I had never been. What better reason? Well actually the other reason was that I wanted to test my passport, to see if Homeland Security would give me the evil eye. And …
Eight precepts of Zycling
This is a Guest Post by Anthony Golding, a bicycle buddha who sits zazen, blogs, and leads zycling expeditions in the U.K. His website is Zycling: Zen cycling and how to wheel freely 1) THERE MUST BE NO SENSE OF URGENCY 2) LEAVE AT HOME RADIO, MUSIC PLAYERS, CELL PHONES, and if you can, WATCHES …
How to buy a bike
Just about every day I get an email saying, hey, I want to get a bike! I want to ride around town, do some shopping, maybe ride to work. I’m a little scared. I haven’t had a bike for a long time and I want to be comfortable. What should I do? First, the brief …