Category: Archived Writings

The world in which we live grows more dependent on technology with every passing day. Even now, you are reading this on a computer, laptop or mobile device. Unfortunately for millions of individuals — many of them children — our dependency rests on their shoulders. Many metals go into the production of these technical marvels…

Mmmmmmm … can you smell it? That warm, rich, inviting aroma of freshly brewed coffee? Over 75% of all U.S. adults look forward to that first-sip moment, most on a daily basis. The morning beverage of choice is in fact the second most valuable commodity in international commerce, after oil. Despite the fact that coffee…

There has been a shift in how officials view the crime of trafficking in persons; whereas it was once considered an immigration issue, more and more enforcement agencies are approaching it as a human rights violation. Efforts toward prevention of human trafficking and prosecution of traffickers are in flux. Outreach to victims is a major…

The detail that most affected my personal slavery footprint was the purchase/ownership of products like stereo equipment, cell phone, computers, television, BluRay and CD players and the discs that go with them, etc. I’m sure to be in good company in a world where even modest U.S. households are filled with technology. It seems obvious…

48 slaves work for me. No, I’m not rich. I don’t live in a big house sitting on acres of land. I’m an average, 50-something woman with an average life. I’ve never personally met the faceless individuals who mine the gold and silver in my jewelry and the minerals in my personal care products, or…

In golf, players who are progressing through the game at a swifter pace will sometimes be allowed to “play through” or pass slower golfers ahead of them on the course. I’m not a golfer. But I am a deeply spiritual being. So I want to explain what I mean by “playing through” in the context…

I sometimes envy people who have had that “Aha!” moment which inspires the words, “This is what I was born for!” To have that certainty, that conviction, that gut-deep knowing that you have found your true purpose must be profoundly and life-alteringly fulfilling! It would, of necessity, focus you, give you “permission” to dismiss all…

You know, it just doesn’t seem like it should be a new year. Again. Didn’t we just have one of those last week? I swear, with every passing year the time seems to scream by with increasing speed. Remember when we were kids and an afternoon seemed to last an eternity? Nowadays, it is gone…

Years ago, I visited a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Woodstock, New York. It was my first visit to a Buddhist temple, and it was glorious — the designs and decoration on the temple itself, the many essentials in its construction (it must face a specific direction; it must have an unobstructed view; there must be…

There’s an old joke about a Taoist who, when ordering food at a hot dog stand, asks the vendor to make him one with everything. Even as we laugh at this play on words, we know exactly what is being implied in the punch line: reunion with the All-That-Is — God, Goddess, Buddha nature, Universe,…