When I walked up to the top of a mountain pass recently, and sat looking out over incredible views of distant sierras, with birds breaking the silence occasionally on either side, I thought about what we can really know. And I came to the conclusion that the only thing we can be sure of isContinue reading “This is, Now”
Author Archives: Ben
Eagles, Kites and Freedom
I asked my friend Mike, ‘What do you call it when you have a blog and you think you should be writing it regularly but aren’t and you feel bad about it?’ And he replied, ‘I think that’s just called being a blogger these days’. Hmmmm. This post is in rebellion to my inactivity andContinue reading “Eagles, Kites and Freedom”
Starting something new… Now!
My wife Marina and I started a new podcast last week for our Spanish-teaching website Notes in Spanish. It’s called “3 Words for Ascuas“. We made episode 1 and put it out into the world the next day. She said, “Let’s record a few more before we put the first one out, it’s good toContinue reading “Starting something new… Now!”
The Road to Panticosa…
We had the unbelievable luck of spending the summer in the Spanish Pyrenees in the region of Aragon, and photography came flooding back into my life. I would nervously send photos to friends and family knowing that they might think I was a provocative pain in the backside for sending them a continuous stream ofContinue reading “The Road to Panticosa…”
Grasses
A few mornings ago I cycled up to the top of the Madrid’s Casa de Campo wild parkland, to a quiet spot between two great oak trees. I found myself looking at the parched grasses moving gently in the wind. They stand there quietly, in peace, free from worries and concerns, and when the timeContinue reading “Grasses”
Heaven or Hell?
Here’s another section from Be Free Where You Are that struck me deeply, on the hell that we cultivate and maintain in ourselves, and the alternative: “We contain the Kingdom of God [peace, freedom, happiness], the Pure Land of the Buddha, in every cell of our bodies. If we know how to live, the KingdomContinue reading “Heaven or Hell?”
Silence
My daughter’s pre-school teacher suggested we try to make deliberate spaces in the day for silence with the kids, maybe just 3 minutes to start with. Find a quiet spot in the house, light a candle in the center of the space, and sit quietly. She suggested that these spaces would be incredibly nutritive forContinue reading “Silence”
Simplify
In R. K. Narayan’s fine novel The Painter of Signs, set in the fictional South-Indian town of Malgudi, the protagonist Raman lives with his ageing aunt. She spends her days tending the home, receiving friends, shopping to feed herself and Raman, and in the evening, attending the local temple to listen to the reading ofContinue reading “Simplify”
Patience…
I’m reading Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession. I nearly gave up early on, nothing seemed to be happening, then I found myself enchanted by its beguiling, funny, undramatic normalness. It’s full of well-expressed passages that sound just right: “With the morning all to himself, he moved to the living room and sat byContinue reading “Patience…”
Joy – Bike – Park
On Monday, as part of Madrid’s ‘de-escalation’ process, the great Casa de Campo park opened. It’s a vast area of wild parkland right next to the city center, which I’ve been sorely missing. I normally go several times a week on my bike, and it’s been painfully off-limits since March 16th. So when I foundContinue reading “Joy – Bike – Park”
