Back when I attended ten-day silent meditation retreats, I once met a man named Matt. Matt was a young man but an old student, experience which earned him a cushion at the front of the class. A newer student at the time, I sat in the back. I remember peeking around the Great Hall during … Read more
After three years of writing, I recently released my second book, True Nature.The art isn’t finished—I could have kept working on it for years.But there comes a time when something grabs ahold of us and says,You’ve held onto this for way too long.It’s time to let it go. Please, for your own sanity. I told … Read more
I recently completed an 8-day water fast. No food, tea, coffee, or supplements. Just water. In this post, I’ll share with you the why and the results. Warning: This content is not advice. I do not recommend unsupervised fasting and take no responsibility for your decision-making. Okay, now that that’s over, let’s begin. 🙂 Why … Read more
It is April of 2015, in the days leading up to a 2,650-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, when something called Vipassana is brought to my attention by my college fraternity brother and soon-to-be hiking partner, Bradley. He begins to explain these ten-day meditation retreats. My eyebrow raises. I think of meditation as a … Read more
I first came across Spiral Dynamics during a late-night YouTube binge, thanks to my friend Bradley. The video entitled The Grand Model of Psychological Evolution ran an hour and twenty-six minutes long and I just so happened to have that kind of time on my hands because sometimes it’s late, I can’t sleep and okay, … Read more
In the Buddhist teaching, there are three primary characteristics of existence: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and no-self. I’ve experienced these characteristics to varying depths and degrees in my practice of Vipassana, a body-scanning meditation technique and a Pali word meaning “to see clearly,” but no-self is far and away the most elusive insight of the bunch. No-self … Read more
I had the wonderful opportunity to share yesterday evening with this book club of lovable ladies who have successfully read one book every month for the last twenty-five years, except November, and months when the book failed to meet their high standards. 🙂 I enjoyed laughing, listening and answering questions about trail life, the inner-journey … Read more
The day I received the first copy of a book that took me three years to write, I cried. But I didn’t cry from first glimpsing the book. Instead, I was brought to tears by writing this reflection. Writing this piece reminded me of where I came from, what it took to write this book, … Read more
Alrighty! I’m so excited to announce that my new book, The Trail Provides: A Boy’s Memoir of Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, is now available for purchase on Amazon in both digital and paperback formats! 05.01.19 Edit: The audiobook is now live too! It’s the story of my hike of the PCT back in 2015 and the … Read more
Dearest Friend, I hope you’re well today. I have a special update for you among other things… So…firstly, I’m excited to announce that I’ve decided to launch the book on 10/17/18. It’s called The Trail Provides: A Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hiking Memoir, and it’ll be filled with stories, pictures, and lessons learned along the way. If you … Read more