On Being Nobody…and No One, by Tracy Cochran
Ivan Aivazovsky, Between the Waves, 1898 How deeply we fear being nobody. One way to think of the ego is as a defense against pain, particularly…
A Formal Feeling Comes
Bonfire, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” writes Emily Dickinson. “The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs.” After a great shock or…
The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran
Chainfoto24, Wat Maha That, Sukhothai (Wikimedia Commons) One day recently, a Buddhist monk stopped me on the street in Manhattan, offering me peace for the…
Soft, by Tracy Cochran
Odilon Redon, Flower Clouds, 1903 The root meaning of heal is whole. Illness and mishap and even great tragedy can lead us eventually from the pain…