“Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?”

~ Tony Hoagland

Practice in Life, See Out, Feel InDaron LarsonDecember 22, 2019Tony Hoagland, poetry, mundane, life, time, attention, paying attentionComment

The Story You Tell Yourself about the World

"It’s easier to live in the story you tell yourself about the world rather than the world itself."

~ Nate Staniforth

Practice in LifeDaron LarsonFebruary 18, 2018Nate Staniforth, magic, wonder, awe, narrative, story, imagination, reality, mundaneComment

Inhabited Simplicity

"Holiness is reached not through effort or will, but by stopping; by an inward coming to rest; a place from which we can embody the spirit of all our holy days, a radical, inhabited simplicity, where we live in a kind of ongoing surprise and with some wonder and appreciation."

~ David Whyte

Naked and Aware: Bare Attention in the Shower

There are many obstacles to establishing a consistent mindfulness routine. Three big ones are finding time to practice, being distracted by thoughts, and feeling bored.

I discovered an exercise that obliterates all three simultaneously, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate the idea of it.

As with any good attention exercise, it leverages an ordinary activity as an opportunity to build capacities that for responding more effectively to the challenges of ordinary life.

What Really Matters

"There’s a tendency for us to think that to be a prophet or to do anything grand, you have to have a special gift, be someone called for. And I think ultimately what really matters is the resolve — to want to do it, to give your life to that which you consider important."

~ Enrique Martínez Celaya

Daron LarsonJune 16, 2017On Being, art, artists, mysticism, prophet, contemplative, Enrique Martínez Celaya, persistence, curiosity, mundaneComment

I Can't Explain Why We Live This Way

"Chaos and commotion wherever I go,
Love I try to follow."

~ Brett Dennen

Daron LarsonFebruary 5, 2017Brett Dennen, music, hope, love, humanity, lyrics, economics, economic classes, mundane, memento moriComment

Cultivating Familiarity

Mindfulness involves cultivating familiarity and intimacy with aspects of everyday experience that we often take for granted.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Refine Your Lens

When I talk to people about finding stories in their life, I'm talking about finding things that are almost in their everyday that they can bring great meaning to and connect to audiences or to people around the lunch table.

~ Matthew Dicks

Practice in LifeDaron LarsonAugust 14, 2015Matthew Dicks, story, storytelling, practice, writing, advice, time, memory, mundane, creativityComment

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

Praise Flow and Change

Praise
flow and change, night and
the pulse of day.

Notice Flow, EquanimityDaron LarsonOctober 30, 2014flow, change, impermanence, poetry, Denise Levertov, praise, wonder, awe, mundane, nature, dream, peace, Mary RIchards, photographyComment

The Little Things

Daron LarsonOctober 24, 2014paying attention, noticing, gratitude, mundane, pleasure, life, The School of LifeComment

Remind Me

"Dad has had a series of loses that you just don't get over. He lost Mom. He lost his sight. He can't walk. His hearing is going. He's afraid his mind is almost gone...I was so happy Dad had something wonderful this morning."

~ Stephen Tobolowsky

Daron LarsonOctober 1, 2014aging, family, memory, pleasure, mundane, joyComment

Completely Drowned Out

"I don’t like when precious things slip through people’s fingers—especially things that seem defenseless or undercelebrated, like old newspapers, but also unheralded people who may have said sensible things at a certain time in history, but who were completely drowned out by other people. Or minor poets whose lives were instructive."

~ Nicholson Baker

GoneDaron LarsonSeptember 23, 2014Nicholson Baker, Ann Hamilton, mundane, memory, archives, writers, writing, paying attention, poetsComment

Disrupt the Default

There is something liberating about feeling at home in both the story of your life and the direct experience of living it.

Beginning, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonJuly 30, 2014paying attention, pause, noticing, mundane Comment

Bored Incarnations of Eternity

"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god?" ~ Alan Watts