Life & Love
with John Driggs
John’s collections of Life & Love writings include topics covering relationships, psychology, politics, social policy, psychedelics, and much more.
Life | Love | & Being…
“Utterance of Existence”
I write the word ‘existence’ onto this pad with my pen, and Existence itself utters its truth to me. It makes bare its own miracle, unclothes its own mystery, reveals its own amazement. This utterance shakes me…
“My Prayer to Humanity”
One of the yummiest parts of my day is found in the company of my family’s stillness as we sit around the dinner table just before we eat. “Should we have our moment of silence?” Gideon, my eight-year-old, asks…
“Death Knocked At My Door”
I’ve decided to meet death formally every day for a year, not in a morbid sense but as a part of my spiritual practice. Death, if we witness it, allows us to live more fully. It can bring clarity to our aims and experience…
“Motivations & Intentions”
Without understanding our motivations for our actions, what can we say we are really doing? Where is our freedom, our choice, our awareness? Now, of course, unless we’re saints, this is where many of us are at…
“My Night With Love”
“Let’s fly paper airplane’s on top of the cabinets. They can be love letters for the next owners to find – a kind of time capsule,” Love said with those trenchant eyes that reach to the depths of your soul…
“My Snow Leopard Angel”
Everyone needs a friend like my Snow Leopard Guardian Angel — a bright light, a beacon, a North Star, a teacher, a wise counselor, a polished mirror to see your own reflection.
“How Do You Hold Your Love”
How do you hold your love? Do you hold her from stillness, with nowhere to go, with nothing to do? How do you hold your love? Do you hold her with acceptance, with open hands and arms, with unabashed…
“Cultivating Loving Attention”
How many of your words and actions are reactive & automatic? How many are reflective and intentional? What would it be like, what would it feel like, to intentionally love yourself, others, and the world?
“By Way of Introduction”
It’s spring in Salt Lake City. I’ve been writing at my desk all day and my back’s painfully aware. I glance out the window and see that the morning’s storm has washed out the pollution and left a soft blue sky…
“Mother Ayahuasca”
It’s hard to unpack and conceptualize the lessons learned and insights gained from this experience. But my hope in this article is to share those golden nuggets of wisdom, those insights and lessons….
“I Am”
I am that which never lives and cannot die, the unwitnessed witness and seer you can’t see. Unborn and unformed, I live without a trace and carry not even a shadow. I am that which, with my marvel, bears life…
“The Earth Sings of Wonder”
I wonder at the earth, my home. Wonder at her relationship with space, time, and darkness, with the sun, moon, and stars. I wonder at Her deepest oceans and highest peaks, wonder at Her deserts…
“Her Deck of Fate”
Her deck of fate | She passes to Life to cut | before She deals one to each child | taken from the womb of Divinity | and placed with the guardians of Time | where each morning | uncertainty rises with the sun…
“What Tongue & Lips Bear”
Her words sharp and strong | as the winds that carve the canyon, Grand | yet soft and ethereal | as Aletheia’s blanket | woven by light and dark | Her voice certain and fluent| as the time from which it unfolds…
“Life’s Craving for a Friend”
Life, an orphan, a child of darkness | generously craved a hand to hold | from emptiness, then, she fashioned a friend | dressed her with space and time | to hold stories and songs as they travel…
“Nurturing The Sacred Garden”
Before we tend our gardens, our kids, let’s gain perspective. Let’s climb to that all-encompassing existence, where we know Love directly, so we can bring its seeds to full, unbounded fruition…
“The Sacred Vine of Existence”
It’s midday during the dry season here in the Sacred Valley of Peru, and the skies are wide open. At ten thousand feet, I can’t ignore the sun’s greeting. The air is thin up here. This is the cost, I guess, to approach the heavens…
“5 Musts for Well-Seekers”
I’ve been thinking lately about what behaviors and routines my kids will pick up from me. How intentional am I being? Where are my blind spots? What am I not aware of? What behaviors and routines should I cultivate?
“River”
You flow through me | waking me to the sound of your life-giving melody | singing at times a paean of rejoice to the spring sun | as you carry me swiftly with hope to unknowable depths | quivering at other times the psalms…
“The Current of Stillness”
She moves in Her Stillness | Understands in Her Wholeness | Creates endless though Formless | And embraces the Boundless | She gives freely Her Charity | Paints marvelously Her Beauty…
“My Introduction to Love”
It’s quiet and peaceful. My roommate has been out of town for work. I don’t know when she’s due home. It doesn’t matter. I’m happy. I’m happy to have the solitude. And I’ll be happy to see her home. Right now…
“My Vows to Love”
The moment you first stepped through my door, your eyes spoke to me as if we had never existed apart. Never had I felt such depth in a creature’s eyes. Never had I felt such an awake and penetrating presence…
“On Friendship”
To have such a meaningful friendship takes hard work. It requires you to develop yourself, to pursue your own interests, your own truth, rather than being swallowed by the masses, by the sea of irresponsibility and conformity…
“Happy Thanksgiving”
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a personal reflection on gratitude, and thank everyone for their support.I’ve been feeling a lot of gratitude lately, as I’m sure many of…
“We Can Wonder!”
Wonder is the beginning. It is the space from which all things unfold. It gives birth to questions, it is the womb of understanding. It molds from the empty space of awareness all that can be known.…
“The Space of Possibility”
The Space of Possibility contains every friend, loved one, beast, and critter, every gizmo and gadget, every feeling of love and compassion, every child’s laughter and newborn baby’s cry, every taste of coffee and smell of freshly…
“Humility & Death”
The other night, just after the house had tucked its creatures to bed, the youngest knocked at my and my partner’s door. I opened it and saw that tears filled her eyes. “What’s wrong, my sweet angel?”
“You’re a Lesbian!”
I don’t know what I’ve been called more over the course of my life: a girl, gay, a lesbian, or ‘uh…what are you’. To get a taste of this, when I was walking home to my condo in Salt Lake from the gas station…
“Moral Impulses”
Where does our morality come from? What causes us to put each foot in front of the next? How do we navigate this complex human life? Many people, perhaps most, believe that morality comes from…