We have a peculiar habit of waiting until the house is on fire before we go looking for water. Meditation can be like that. We hear about its benefits and tuck the idea away somewhere for later. Later, when we have more time. Later, when the children are grown or the work settles down or the house is quiet. Later, when life becomes more cooperative. And then something happens. We get sick. Someone we love gets sick. A relationship falls apart. A diagnosis arrives. Someone dies. Money becomes...

Kindness has become one of those words we admire from a distance, like an old oak tree standing at the edge of a field. We point to it. We praise it. We tell children to practice it. We congratulate ourselves when we hold a door open or let another driver merge into traffic. Most of us would say we are kind people. And perhaps we are. But kindness has a way of asking one more question after we’ve already answered. Yes, but what about your thoughts? That is where the conversation becomes...

I have developed a rather embarrassing habit. When I call a company and an artificial intelligence answers the phone, something in me quietly resigns from civilization. Suddenly, I interrupt. I sigh. I become impatient. I say things I would never dream of saying to a human being. “Representative.” “No.” “That’s not what I asked.” “Can I speak to someone real?” If the poor machine insists on finishing its sentence, I cut it off halfway through, as though somewhere deep inside me I believe...