Category: philosophical counseling
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‘I have been thinking about existence lately…’
I have been thinking about wonderment and amazement, and I came, again, across this rich passage from Marilynne Robinson’s beautiful novel Gilead. The Reverend John Ames, writing to his son, recalls an early morning: I have been thinking about existence lately. In fact, I have been so full of admiration for existence that I have hardly…
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‘I was a bride married to amazement’
From Mary Oliver’s poem ‘When Death Comes,’ I pick up beautiful images. Like this one on wonderment: I want [when death comes] to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And this one on amazement: When it’s over, I want to say all my…
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Insistence, Openness, Wonderment, Amazement
1. O cease your insistence. Nothing has to be just so. You do not know how it has to be, do you? Without insistence, you are open. And free to let what is be. 2. O surrender yourself to openness. Nothing being just so, whatever is here is here. Whatever is not here is not here.…
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The Way of Flowers (A whim)
I think I could really take to the Way of Flowers, though I don’t know what it involves. I like looking at wild flowers. I like cutting them. I like arranging them naturally, organically, letting them hang every which way or certain ways, as if no hand had touched them or, if at all, only gently so.…
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Two boo’s for ‘living in order to work’
I Call me puzzled. I can’t help but recall a wealthy man I used to tutor while I was living in New York City. He was an heir to a famous American dynasty and was doubtless so wealthy that none of his grandchildren would ever need to work. Despite this, he worked very long hours, founding and co-founding companies,…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 