A New Start

Sharing my path to enlightenment & recovery.

I want to stop running.

I’ve been running too long.

I found a commitment to training in the path of an artist and bodhisattva. Not as an abstract idea, but as a lived practice. An attempt to wake up in the middle of all my blindness. To move toward enlightenment while raising two kids, making art, living in Nashville, Tennessee, and recovering from a deep addiction to running.

All my addictions are a product of running away from the things that scare me.

Starting with social media addiction; for years, I confused connection with visibility. I believed I needed to be everywhere, all the time, constantly producing, constantly sharing. What I didn’t realize was how much of my attention was being quietly taken from me. What looked like engagement was often avoidance. What felt like momentum was sometimes compulsion.

This space is a refusal of that pattern.

I wanted a place that moved at a human pace. A place not governed by algorithms, metrics, or urgency. A small room, away from the big platforms, where attention can settle and practice can deepen.

This Substack is a living notebook.

A studio journal. A record of practice.

Here I’ll share my work.
I’ll share poems and unfinished writing.
I’ll share works in progress from my studio.
I’ll share art and music, and film, including pieces that may never leave the studio.
I’ll share notes from my meditation practices.
I’ll share reflections from retreats and my study of Buddhist dharma.
I’ll share the daily work of writing a novel, one morning at a time. Maybe.

These days, I’ve been getting up every day to write this novel, and I want to share that process too. Not so much the content, but the muses and hurdles to write 2500 words a day.

As of writing this, I’ve practiced meditation for roughly 3,000 days, only missing a few days here and there when traveling and sick. I’ve attended retreat after retreat. I once sat in silence for a month. I’ve studied the texts, sat with the practices, and found real refuge there and with the Buddha. Not escape, but refuge amidst the bullshit of my life.

Many people have expressed interest in sitting together. I plan to host live meditations here as well, offered simply and sincerely, without spectacle.

I aint your entertainment.

This is not a brand channel.
This is not a productivity system.
This is not spiritual content optimized for engagement.

This is not about arriving.
It’s about walking.

The bodhisattva path, as I understand it, is a commitment to wake up alongside others, not above them. To practice clarity and compassion in the middle of complexity. To stay present even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially when it’s uncomfortable.

Why I’m Sharing This Publicly

Practice doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in Sangha.

I’m sharing this with a small community of people who care. People who are tired of noise. People who are curious about mindfulness, art and the path of recovery from social media addiction.

This notebook is open.
The work continues.