There is no solution, no problem. There's just not knowing, being here, wondering, living from moment to moment. Nothing else. page 170, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson .

It seems that in the desire for sexual engagements there is an urge to connect deeply, to go to the bottom of everything, below the levels of words and social veneer, to the realm of smell, taste, touch...of hatred, hopelessness, and otherness again and again, going through them and learning that they can pass. pages 158-159, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson

... sometimes I panic and realize that I am middle-aged and my friends are turning into grandparents and what have I accomplished? Nothing. I'm a childless, careerless failure ... page 101, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson .

When our reality is not culturally verified and we are made invisible, or made out to be crazy, we internalize this and discount our own feelings and insights. It seems to take years and years of work to begin to take one's own perceptions seriously again. page 90, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson .

When our reality is not culturally verified and we are made invisible, or made out to be crazy, we internalize this and discount our own feelings and insights. It seems to take years and years of work to begin to take one's own perceptions seriously again. page 90, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson .

I call my friend Elaine in San Francisco. What is life all about? she asks. Living a life so that our names can go on some giant roll call in the heavens: She paid her rent, she paid her taxes, she wrote...books? Shit, Elaine says, I'd rather be on a list of people who ate as many pot stickers as they wanted to. page 68, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson

Writing is a way of listening, a way of changing perception. It seems there is something worthwhile in telling out stories, bringing to light and sharing what has been hidden or silenced, what has long...are - and it also helps us understand other people's experiences, which may be different from our own. page 62, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson

Writing is a way of listening, a way of changing perception. It seems there is something worthwhile in telling out stories, bringing to light and sharing what has been hidden or silenced, what has long...are - and it also helps us understand other people's experiences, which may be different from our own. page 62, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life by Joan Tollifson