
Cloistered monks know secrets of silence.
Continue reading “Secrets of Silence (a 6-word story)”January was a decent month for me, and I figured I’d give an update on things in an effort to advocate mental health. I’ve written about mental health a bit on this blog, but it usually falls by the wayside compared to the fiction and poetry stuff I share.
Over the past few years, I’ve developed some mental health routines. One of them is to track my mood every day on a phone app called Daylio. The app is free (I think) and it’s a great way to keep me present. It does feel weird to gather so much “data” on my mood – I can see charts, etc., broken down by day of the week, month, all sorts of things. But it’s still great.
Continue reading “What I’ve Been Doing for my Mental Health”in solitude I come to know myself –
chatter of others stripped away, me stripped
of creature comforts, a creature without
a haven, thoughts bang & jangle
in a brain that has gone insane –
Continue reading “Ode to Solitude (a poem)”Here’s a drawing from my sketchbook from about a year ago. I like how this one turned out! I have a small Buddha statue in my bedroom, which was the model for the drawing. I like how calm and serene the Buddha looks in this drawing, and I also like how the coloring turned out.
Continue reading “Meditating in the Mountains (a drawing)”My emotions have been very much affected by the 24-hour news cycle during the pandemic. The news has been grim – in America, there are constant updates about record unemployment, nasty protests, and the various insults hurled by politicians at each other. Yesterday, I asked myself, is peace possible during all this turmoil?
Continue reading “Is peace possible during the pandemic?”I didn’t realize how I much appreciated silence until my late twenties, after another mental health breakdown. A bad breakup had sent me running to another self-help group and, unknowingly, into a deeper search for God.
Continue reading “The Silent Place”