Little Victories

I enjoyed every minute of listening to Jason Gay describe what it feels like to stumble into regular adulthood. It felt like having a long conversation with a friend who makes you laugh, not by trying to be funny, but simply by describing ordinary life in all its messiness.

Daron LarsonFebruary 14, 2016Jason Gay, life, illness, griefComment

Seeing The Shape

Wisdom is seeing the shape of your life
without obliterating (getting over) a single
instant of it.

~ Albert Huffstickler

Feel In, EquanimityDaron LarsonDecember 12, 2015Albert Huffstickler, poetry, broken heart, self, grief, pain, discomfort, story, narrative Comments

Totally Insane with Joy

"When someone you love walks through the door, even if it happens five times a day, you should go totally insane with joy."

Feel In, Gone, Magnanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonJune 9, 2015grief, dogs, friendship, sadness, joy, gratitudeComment

An Obesity of Grief

when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?

~ Ellen Bass

Equanimity, Feel In, GoneDaron LarsonJune 8, 2015poetry, Ellen Bass, grief, resilienceComment

This Primal Commitment

What happens when, just for a moment, we stay with our pain, our fear, our doubt, our discomfort, our grief, our broken heart, even our numbness, without trying to change it, or fix it, or numb ourselves to it, or get rid of it in any way? What happens when, even when we feel like leaving, abandoning the moment for the promise of a future salvation, we stay, sitting with the raw, unfiltered, boundlessly alive life-energy that is simply trying to express right now?

~ Jeff Foster

Feel In, Clarity, Equanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonNovember 18, 2014Jeff Foster, suffering, emotions, feeling, life, resistance, uncertainty, grief, death, doubt, discomfortComment

No Less Real

"So much of what we live goes on inside–"

Daron LarsonNovember 1, 2014Dana Gioia, grief, death, memory, communication, Day of the Dead, secrecy, yearning, self/other, riskComment

Sweet and Tart

"Bad things are going to happen."

EquanimityDaron LarsonOctober 31, 2014Ellen Bass, poetry, uncertainty, chaos, suffering, life, mundane, challenge, complexity, relationships, growing up, discomfort, confusion, home, struggle, griefComment

My Tribe is Scattered

Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!

~ Stanley Kunitz

Daron LarsonOctober 23, 2014Stanley Kunitz, poetry, self, self/other, identity, grief, past, future, uncertainty, transformation, changeComment

Feel Around

"Because I write poetry, I can sit down and write things that I don’t have proof of, or even know the end of the sentence. I can feel around and nobody gets hurt, right? It’s a poem. And so I wrote this poem out of grief and an attempt to make it very plain to myself, the argument that I’d come up with."

~ Jennifer Michael Hecht

Feel In, EquanimityDaron LarsonSeptember 29, 2014Jennifer Michael Hecht, suicide, TRBQ, conversation, poet, poetry, grief, writing, empathy, feelingsComment

Our Unlived Lives

“There is always what will turn out to be the life we led, and the life that accompanied it, the parallel life (or lives) that never actually happened, that we lived in our minds, the wished-for life (or lives): the risks untaken and the opportunities avoided or unprovided.” ~ Adam Phillips

Daron LarsonAugust 19, 2014life, self, grief, Adam Phillips, narrativeComment

Life after Death

"When I go, I hope someone grabs hold of me. But I have to promise I’m grabbing hold of who's gone before." ~ Dario Robleto

Daron LarsonJuly 28, 2014memory, On Being, death, grief, heaven, time, family, history, gone, art, artists, poetry, sculptureComment

Sinking into the Mystery

"What happens when, just for a moment, we stay with our pain, our fear, our doubt, our discomfort, our grief, our broken heart, even our numbness, without trying to change it, or fix it, or numb ourselves to it, or get rid of it in any way? What happens when, even when we feel like leaving, abandoning the moment for the promise of a future salvation, we stay, sitting with the raw, unfiltered, boundlessly alive life-energy that is simply trying to express right now?" ~ Jeff Foster

Daron LarsonJuly 26, 2014Jeff Foster, equanimity, pain, fear, discomfort, grief, mystery, home, emptiness, impermanenceComment

Poetry Can Help Us Live with Death

Daron LarsonJune 9, 2014Stephen Burt, TED, art, death, grief, language, poetry, wordsComment

Some Unprotected Desire

Daron LarsonApril 18, 2014Dubai, Edward Hirsch, consumerism, economic system, greed, grief, happiness, society, yearningComment

There is Always a Gust of Wind Somewhere

"The day my grandfather passed away there was the strongest wind,
I could feel his gentle hands blowing away from me.
I knew then they were off to find someone
who needed them more than I did.
On average 1.8 people on earth die every second.
There is always a gust of wind somewhere."

~ Michael Lee

Daron LarsonDecember 13, 2013Guante, Michael Lee, death, grief, identity, memory, poetry, self, self/other, spoken-wordComment

Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Daron LarsonAugust 6, 2013Mark Epstein, grief, psychotherapy, sadness, timeComment

What It Means To Love You After You Are Dead

Daron LarsonMarch 21, 2013Richard Feynman, death, feelings, grief, love, relationships, romanceComment

Very Little Pleasure in Joy

Daron LarsonFebruary 17, 2013Zadie Smith, feelings, grief, joy, mundane, paradox, pleasure, writersComment

For the Last Time

Daron LarsonJanuary 6, 2013Dennis O'Driscoll, death, gone, grief, life, poetry, poetsComment

Live Your Life

"There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready."

~ Maurice Sendak

Daron LarsonJanuary 6, 2013Maurice Sendak, Terry Gross, aacceptance, aging, death, engaged, equanimity, grief, life, paying attentionComment

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