Featured Articles from Issue 56
This night, I climbed through the dark of my confusion to somewhere near the top quarter of the tree. I braced myself to sit on one branch, hooked my foot, and hugged the main trunk. It was solid but I could just make out a slight sway. I relinquished my human decision-making to a simple “just hold on”—something I’d later find out was a common moment (or phase) for most of humanity.
Winter invites us inward. As colder days settle over the landscape (especially here in Michigan), everything takes on a slower pace. Trees conserve energy. Animals burrow and rest. The air itself encourages stillness. As every living thing knows, true rest isn’t laziness, it’s nourishment. Winter gives us permission to soften, restore, and rebuild energy before spring arrives. Thankfully, there are so many lovely ways to incorporate rest and relaxation into your everyday routine.
The moon has a way of catching a child’s eye. It lingers above treetops, follows the car home, disappears for a few nights, then returns—quiet, steady, familiar. For parents, it’s a reminder to pause, to notice, and to reconnect with something simple yet deeply grounding: the rhythm of nature itself.
Folklore customs as well as generational practices for healing, heartbreak, and dealings with the mystical still abound. However, oral tradition of teaching family wisdom is dwindling, and family “books” for many have been reduced to genealogy charts and possibly a Bible in which obituaries or birth announcements are stuffed.
When two of the most talented and prolific musicians in Ann Arbor come together, the synergy of sound and sentiment is too beautiful to miss. “We’ve been writing words and melodies to express our love story in all of its depth and magic, with the goal of sharing it with you, our dearest ones, as we celebrate our union together.”
As we enter the late 2020s, the American Zen community is preparing for a changing of the guard. With many of today’s Western Zen teachers trained during the 1960s and 1970s, temples and teaching centers across the country are preparing to hand leadership to a new generation of students and enter a new era of American Zen Buddhism. For the first time, the leaders will be largely Western people who were taught by other Westerners in the late 20th century--not Westerners who were taught directly by Zen teachers from Asia.
More from Issue 56
The moon has a way of catching a child’s eye. It lingers above treetops, follows the car home, disappears for a few nights, then returns—quiet, steady, familiar. For parents, it’s a reminder to pause, to notice, and to reconnect with something simple yet deeply grounding: the rhythm of nature itself.
As the Director of Washtenaw My Brother’s Keeper (WMBK), Jamall Bufford makes a powerful impression of warmth and conviction. “Everyone sees his heart,” his colleague Justin Harper said. “Jamall is a great person. It is easy to work with him because he is a good listener, a team player, and completely true to his convictions. When someone has those qualities, a lot of great things can happen.”
What does normal even mean?” Jonathan Buckman asked. Buckman is not normal—he is unique and extraordinary by any measure, and that is what makes him such a great therapist, social worker, practitioner, neighbor, and friend. “Jonathan has attained master level accomplishments in so many domains, but you would never guess it if you were meeting him for the first time,” his bandmate, neighbor, and co-conspirator Jeff Gladchun told me. “You couldn’t ask for a better friend than Jonathan. He is one of a kind.”
Answers to your questions! How can I use advanced intentional living space principles to create a harmonious home, energetically balanced, and aligned with my spiritual path? What are the best practices for creating and using a vision board to manifest my highest potential and dreams? What are the best ways to protect and shield my energy field from negative entities and psychic attacks?
I also adore leading, or more often being led by, these foundational elements of yoga. This is That: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras Padas 1 and 2 by Anand Mehrotra, gets right to the heart of your question when he writes “… it is very dangerous to translate it merely as “Thou shall speak the truth and only the truth.”” He goes on to explain that all of our truths are subjective, based our own experiences, and not based on any universal or unbiased truth. He extrapolates that if we are in conflict, our truth is filtered through the lens of that conflict.
