“The Fierce and Tender Mother” out in Tricycle’s Substack

Thrilled to have a new essay out in Tricycle magazine’s Substack, Another Way To Live. I wrote about losing my mother before becoming one myself, her outrageous fierceness and tenderness, the archetypes of protective female Buddhas, and how grief and loss led me to find a nurturing, powerful awareness in spiritual practice—sometimes referred in Tibetan Buddhism as "the Great Mother."

I hope this essay benefits anyone who has lost a beloved parent or has struggled through grief 🙏🏼❤️

You can find this essay on the Another Way to Live Substack.

Me and my fierce and tender mother in Guanajuato, Mexico, in the spring of 2004.

Reading at Tuesday Funk on 3/2/24 + New post on Substack

Hello world!

I’m very excited to be reading at the Hopleaf tomorrow night, 3/2/24, for the Tuesday Funk Reading Series. I love, love, love the Tuesday Funk. It is never boring! I promise to read something that will transfix and delight you—and it won’t go on for too long.

Also, I have a new post on Substack, The Antidote Is Love: Relieving Chronic Pain & Less Through Meditation. Bodies are wonderful, but damn if it doesn’t hurt to have a body sometimes. This post includes Mexica/Aztec host figurines, Tibetan Body Mandalas, somatic bliss, chronic pain, my mother’s disability, holding pain with love, and the limits of healing narratives. I hope it brings a sense of comfort and freedom.

"Yoga Jones is my spirit animal." -- Patton Oswalt

I wrote an article about Buddhism, yoga, and Orange Is The New Black. "An Unlikely TV Heroine: The Dharma According to Yoga Jones" is now available through Spirituality & Health magazine. Many thanks to the talented Constance Shulman for giving this interview!