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Personal Essays

First-person stories about what mindfulness looks like in real, messy, everyday life. These essays are honest, personal, and often funny - written by people who've found that paying attention changes everything.
A man is flying a kite over the ocean.
Magazine
Thoughts from a Catholic Hermitage 

Pico Iyer, author of Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign, on the time he spends at a Catholic hermitage, a place by the sea where creation unites with the light inside. Read More 

  • Mindful Staff
  • August 25, 2010
A woman with short hair, dressed in a polka-dot shirt, is depicted in an artistic style on a dark blue background. Yellow birds, some flying and others perched on her, surround her. She gazes upwards with an expression of wonder or contemplation.
Magazine
Can I Be Honest with You? 

Telling the truth requires that you know the truth. Mindfulness meditation, says Cyndi Lee, helps us see the ways we deceive others—and ourselves.  Read More 

  • Cyndi Lee
  • August 25, 2010
A group of four airplane passengers, each in their respective seats: Seat 12-F, an elderly man appreciating the beauty seen with age; Seat 5-B, a young woman learning to trust her instincts while traveling; Seat 42-C, a man whose children changed his worldview; and Seat 17-A, a woman mourning but gradually finding each day a bit easier.
Magazine
Wisdom in the Next Seat 

A chance meeting on a plane reminds Sylvia Boorstein that striking up a conversation with a stranger and being truly interested in what they say can lead to unexpected insights. Read More 

  • Sylvia Boorstein
  • August 25, 2010
Loving-Kindness & Compassion
Friends & Enemies 

When a sharp word turns a friend into an enemy, it’s always difficult to go back to the way things were. Sylvia Boorstein tells her own story of estrangement and healing. Read More 

  • Sylvia Boorstein
  • August 25, 2010
A doll dressed in a pink gown with a small tiara sits on a shelf, leaning against a wooden railing. She is surrounded by other dolls in various colorful, elegant dresses. The lighting creates a warm, glowing ambiance.
Magazine
Barbie Dolls and Bottom Lines 

Like any progressive mother, Karen Maezen Miller was torn when her daughter entered the Barbie stage. But what's worse—Barbie’s commercialism and hypersexuality, or Mom’s grown-up judgments and concepts? Read More 

  • Mindful Staff
  • August 24, 2010
A blurred image of a young child walking away on a forest path. The child has brown hair and is wearing a blue vest over a red and white striped long-sleeve shirt. The scene appears to be sunny with light filtering through the trees.
Magazine
Daughter Time 

“The time of childhood is going to go fast,” says Rick Bass, author of Where the Sea Used to Be. “I’m doing what I can to slow it down.” Read More 

  • Mindful Staff
  • August 24, 2010
A black and white photo of a young couple standing outside, with the man smiling and embracing the woman. The man wears a light-colored sweater and slacks, while the woman is dressed in a light blouse and skirt. There is a building and parked cars in the background.
Depression & Grief
Love’s Legacy Lost 

A child of one economic crisis, he died on the eve of another. His gift of love was economic security for his family. His son James Kullander reflects on the sadness of a legacy lost. Read More 

  • Mindful Staff
  • August 24, 2010
An elderly person wearing a straw hat and glasses smiles while holding the arm of a younger person. The younger person, with dark hair, smiles and looks up affectionately at the elderly person. They are outside near a plant and wooden structure.
Creativity
The Art of Losing: On Writing, Dying, & Mom 

How do we reconcile chaos with control? Cataloging moments of poetry and disaster, novelist and essayist Ruth Ozeki makes sense of family quirks, history almost lost, and the death of parents. Read More 

  • Ruth Ozeki
  • August 24, 2010
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