My eyes open and the daylight through the bedroom window is barely there. I twist to sit up. Bill is curled up knees bent toward the east and I’ve been sleeping knees up toward the west. Our feet almost touch. Nestled with her head to my knees and her hips to Bill’s knees is our dog [...]

In a moment a wisp of incense smoke curled into the ray of April sunshine that slanted through the window. I sat in open-eyed meditation in the zendo (meditation hall) after six days and 60 plus hours of sitting practice of a nine-day silent retreat. How lovely. How far from ordinary. How unlike anything I’d [...]