Colleen Morton Busch

Author of Fire Monks

Gone, gone beyond

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As of Sept 26, I'm entering a three-month practice period at Tassajara, so things will be quiet on this blog and on my Huff Post blog for a while. I'm happy to say that Fire Monks is humming along, finding readers in places both expected and unexpected. Fire season will slide into snow season while I'm away. May the fires that have yet to start bring new life. I wrote a parting commentary published today in the Duluth News Tribune. The Pagami Creek fire burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the approaching 20th anniversary of the Oakland Hills fire closer … [Read more...]

Fire Monks is a KWMR pledge premium

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Tomorrow, KWMR Community Radio in West Marin will be airing an interview with me as part of their fall pledge drive and National Preparedness Month, from 10-11:30 am PST. And, they will give away free copies of FIRE MONKS as pledge premiums! I am working on posting one or two more Huffington Post blogs in the next couple of weeks. After that, it will be quiet on fire-monks.com for the remaining months of the year, as I'll be offline for three months of retreat--at Tassajara. Retreat isn't exactly the right word for a practice period, but more on that later... Mark your … [Read more...]

Decisions, decisions

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“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” says a social psychologist in the recent New York Times Magazine article on decision fatigue. “It’s a state that fluctuates.” I agree wholeheartedly. Writing Fire Monks, I reached a similar conclusion. But decisions are not just the product of one person’s exertion of willpower. They are a complex combination of individual will and everything else—all of the environmental, cultural, social, and yes, biological factors also at play. We can all make “good” decisions—thank goodness—but … [Read more...]

Pt. Reyes

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Pt. Reyes Books owners Steve Costa and Kate Levinson with Fire Monks author Colleen Morton Busch and San Francisco Zen Center Central Abbot Steve Stucky at Pt. Reyes Community Presbyterian Church Aug 13th. Thank you to Kate and Steve for hosting a great event. Read about Kate's book, Emotional Currency, here. … [Read more...]