• From Anger to Clarity

    From Anger to Clarity: Transforming Frustrations into Effective Actions This past week offered many in our country a true opportunity for reflection. The atmosphere felt ripe with heightened emotions. Limiting my interactions in this atmosphere felt like a smart move. The temptation to blame anyone, everyone, someone for my internal sense of rumbling emotions felt overwhelming at times. And, so I slept. I meditated. I listened to music. Fuming internally is no fun. I actually woke in the middle of the night to the smell of burning embers. It took me a minute to realize it was my own emotional stew pot simmering on a low boil. Experience offered me the comfort of knowing that this too shall pass. We have all heard the expression anger begets anger. Which leads…

  • The Labyrinth

      The ancient symbol of a labyrinth relates to the concept of wholeness. By combining the imagery of a circle with a spiral, traditional labyrinths offer a meandering path with purposeful meaning. Walking the labyrinth offers a journey to the center of the maze and back out again. It is not meant to confuse or frustrate the walker. Rather, the gift of the labyrinth is to soothe, to comfort, to offer insight and reflection. Perhaps, the most famous labyrinth is preserved within the nave of Chartres Cathedral in France. Built around 1200, it was intended to be walked as a pilgrimage in order to become closer to God. Labyrinths have been found all over the world — some dating back 4,000 years. All too often their origins lost in the…

  • Island

    March 2016 Book of the Month – Island by Aldous Huxley Dean — Well, how ’bout this — a long overdue thank you note for the book.  I am currently right smack dab in the middle of Island.  I’ve got to tell you with every turn of the page, I understand more and more why you offered it to me.  And, I wonder how is it, I missed this one?!?!?!  While I am entranced by Will’s story, the legacy of Dr. MacPhail’s teaching and the exploration of Buddhist philosophy, my favorite part of the book is definitely the birds yelling “Attention, Attention!” Makes me smile every time they do it.  We are going to make it a book club read for Tuning the Student Mind. Hope your semester is going well.  I…

  • To Be Seen

      I have been told that my finest quality is my boundless enthusiasm.  Sometimes, however, this eager openness gets me in a bit of trouble. Several years ago a photography student asked me if I would participate in her photo series for senior studio.  Complimented to be asked, I immediately agreed.  For years, I have worn bright red lipstick in the hopes of being discovered like Lana Turner at the corner drugstore.  On the appointed day of the “shoot”, I packed a bag of potential outfits, blew out my hair and painted on my lips. As soon as I arrived Jen invited me to look at some of the images she had already completed for her thesis project.  The first image was of her father.  He was seated on an unmade…

  • a poem

      There is an inherent sadness in humanity, this particular kind of turmoil that spurs our uncertainty, from uncertainty. It causes conventional men and women to cling recklessly to their egos and self proclaimed artists to drown in their identity, desperate to be clever, as if wit can do anything but breed with itself when it lacks the concept of compassion. My limbo generation slides in and out of consciousness, with their standards distorted and excuses within reach. Meanwhile a vast and endless universe opens its doors to anyone, anything willing to be a part of it. You may feel on top of the world but in reality you are floating, only a speck, in everything, and I wish you could see how beautiful you are. Rachel Pendergrass

  • Breakfast With Buddha by Roland Merullo

    October 2015 Book of the Month I always told myself I would never use a Kindle. There is just something about going into the used bookstore by my house and peeling back the pages of an old book that I refuse to sacrifice. However, I now find myself in a different time and space. Wiggling 10 day old baby in my arms, propped up on pillows, hands full — so I’m tapping through the pages of Breakfast With Buddha on my mother-in-law’s Kindle. She and I first talked about this book two summers ago. I figure there must be a reason I’ve saved it for now. Breakfast With Buddha (despite reminding me of the outside world) has allowed me to find pockets of time to go inward in this crazy feeling…

  • The Essential Rumi

    August 2015 Book of the Month It’s that time of year again, and you may not want to dip into a novel right now. This should be a time of reflection and getting ready for the semester ahead. So we thought you might enjoy a book of poems by Rumi. Our favorite method of reading a book of poems is to just pick it up and open to any page. The poem below is what we opened up to today. Sure seems fitting! A Cleared Site The presence rolling through again clears the shelves and shuts down shops. Friend of the soul, enemy of the soul, why do you want mine? Bring tribute from the village. But the village is gone in your flood. That cleared site is what I…

  • Angie Foster | Cutting Room Floor

    One of our favorite past times is catching up with old friends.  Angie Foster is a 2013 graduate of the Tuning the Student Mind program at the College for Creative Studies. She now lives and works in NYC.  Take it away Angie:   I moved to Brooklyn from Detroit last August. So far it has been adventurous, sweaty, lovely, hilarious, intimidating, ambitious, and perfectly imperfect in every way. I never know what I am going to see or do, but I just feel this pull that I am moving in the right direction. Within a few months of random freelance work when I moved here, I got my foot in the door of Pentagram, pretty much my dream job. A two-week freelance gig turned into a 9 month freelance-turned-internship with some great people and…

  • Cherry Basil Almond Sauce

    I love food. I love the freedom it gives me, as an artist, to express myself and try new and unusual things. A majority of my recipes commonly stem from an idea while I’m shopping, after seeing an item that inspires me. This past week, that food item was these luscious, organic cherries I found at whole foods in Detroit. I immediately thought cherries and almonds and was hooked from there.   I knew that I was also in the mood to cook with fish so I picked up some fresh Icelandic cod to use as my protein. Icelandic things continue to inspire me and constantly remind me of my trip there so I like to buy them whenever I can. I then invited my mother and father over for…

  • Stalking the Wild Pendulum by Itzhak Bentov

    March 2015 Book of the Month Radical when it was first written in 1977, Stalking the Wild Pendulum offered the reader  a revolutionary image of the human mind and the universe. We at TTSM hope our July 2012 book pick reignites the passion for consciousness studies first inspired by Bentov more than thirty five years ago. In his creative first book, Itzhak Bentov paints a provocative image of the universe as comprised of sound vibrations, light rays, subtle energies, and packets of consciousness. He also discusses his  ideas that our brains are actually thought amplifiers, not thought’s source; that the universe is a hologram, as is the brain; that we can instantly reclaim any information ever known; that our bodies mirror the universe, down to the working of each cell; that…