Having been a Buddhist meditator for nearly 30 years, I have acquired a lot of what are called “skillful means”—techniques that can improve our lives—and resources for healing and growth.

The last of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha’s fundamental teaching, is the Eightfold Path. It’s not a linear path we follow step by step, but rather a comprehensive, lifelong practice that can help us achieve liberation from suffering and bring us into joy, gratitude, peace, and ease.

I heard this expression somewhere recently, and immediately switched: no news before noon.

I feel better about the world having ridden home on the bus yesterday in the rain.

This week, my dear friend SB mentioned these two lines from Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day:

Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
– Mary Oliver

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Scott Ressler, a film producer at National Geographic, and I hosted a gathering called Digital Mindfulness: A Conversation on Balance. My primary takeaway? I LOVED IT!