About Nathan Thompson
Nathan Thompson blogs at dangerousharvests.com, which features writings about zen Buddhism, yoga, social justice and politics, the arts, and life in general.
Nathan writes: “It is difficult to summarize who I am, given that the "hats" I wear are diverse, and life itself is always changing. I have been a student of zen meditation for over eight years, and a yoga practitioner for a good part of the last decade. I am an ESL teacher, an editor of an on-line literary journal, a nearly year round bicyclist, a gardener, a non-profit board member, a political questioner, a life questioner, and sometimes a dreamer.”
Rejected Because of Your Communication Skills
I felt a twinge of recognition from both sides of the fence when I read this post from blogger Clarisse Thorn: "When we met for coffee and he did the Let’s-Just-Be-Friends thing, he said it was because of how I communicated. He said: 'You know, I … Read more →
Where is the Love?
Love. Many of us love to be in love, and yet how often do we actually love each other well? What's interesting to me is how humans struggle to exude love on the macro-level - loving all of creation as a manifestation of the divine - and also … Read more →
Loneliness During the Dark Days of Winter
This time of year tends to be challenging for me. I would guess the same is true for many others out there. And what's interesting to me is that although the level of activity with others is often ramped up, so, too, can the feelings of loneliness. … Read more →
What is Success Anyway?
" What I am saying is this: the score is not what matters. Life does not have to be regarded as a game in which scores are kept and somebody wins. If you are too intent on winning, you will never enjoy playing. If you are too obsessed with success, … Read more →
The “Bad” Meditator
When I'm in the yoga world, it's not uncommon for someone to say, upon hearing about my Zen practice, "Oh, I'm terrible at meditation" or "It's too hard for me." Sometimes, I hear the same thing as well from newcomers on Sunday mornings down at the … Read more →
The 80-20 Rule
I’m not a believer that our thoughts alone make our lives. That’s way too simple in my view. However, I do believe that how we think about ourselves does have an impact. Sometimes a strong one, and sometimes much more subtly. If internally you feel some desperation to find a partner, and some loathing of being single, others will pick up on that. If you don’t feel passionate about different aspects of your life, that will be fairly obvious to others.
Gratitude Solves All Problems
Over the past year, I have been collecting the blogs of people living "alternative" forms of career. Or, you might say, doing lives in a form different from the wage-an-hour, 9-5 setting. One thing I've noticed among nearly everyone writing these … Read more →
Mindful Community Building
How do we mindfully build communities? How can we shift both physical and social structures in order to live together in a more awakened way?
Guys Cooking and Other Gendered Narratives
About an hour ago, I called my grandmother. She’s 88 years old, today being her birthday. We had a very short conversation, about 4 minutes, but two things struck me about it. The first was that I mentioned cooking myself dinner, and she started offering me suggestions on how I might improve on it. Which didn’t bother me, but did get me thinking about the whole cooking thing and gender roles.
Happiness Narratives
How the way Americans understand happiness is tied to economic disparities, says Nathan Thompson.
