DW's Blog

The Anti-Cracker Barrel: How Dorothy Lane Market Proves Authentic Heritage Beats Manufactured Nostalgia

by DW Green — September 3, 2025

“While chains race to the bottom with processed convenience, DLM continues to elevate what a grocery shopping experience can be.”

In an era where corporate chains slap vintage signs on cookie-cutter stores and call it “tradition,” Dorothy Lane Market stands as a beacon of what authentic heritage actually looks like. With their recent expansion to Mason Ohio, DLM has once again demonstrated why genuine family values and unwavering commitment to quality will always trump manufactured nostalgia.REAL TRADITION VS. CORPORATE THEATERWalk into any Cracker Barrel, and you’ll find the same carefully curated “old-timey” décor, the same mass-produced comfort food, the same calculated attempt to manufacture feelings of home and heritage. It’s retail theater—convincing but hollow.Now step into a Dorothy Lane Market. Here, tradition isn’t a marketing gimmick painted on the walls; it’s baked into every decision, every product selection, every interaction with staff and community. For decades, the Mayne family has built something far more valuable than a brand—they’ve cultivated a genuine culture of excellence.STAYING TRUE WITHOUT STANDING STILLWhat makes DLM the anti-Cracker Barre...

by DW Green — August 28, 2025

“The path forward requires acknowledging a fundamental truth: in a world
of accelerating change, the biggest risk is often taking no risk at all. The
greatest failure is often the failure to try.”

In our relentless pursuit of success, we’ve created a paradox that quietly undermines our greatest achievements. We crave certainty in an inherently uncertain world, and in doing so, we’ve made fear our most trusted advisor—often without realizing it.THE ILLUSION OF CERTAINTYCertainty feels safe. It promises predictable outcomes, manageable risks, and the comfort of knowing what comes next. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: certainty is never actually certain. It’s a mental construct, a story we tell ourselves to navigate complexity and ambiguity.The markets shift overnight. Technologies emerge from nowhere to disrupt entire industries. Consumer preferences evolve in ways no focus group predicted. The very foundations we thought were solid prove to be shifting sand.Yet our minds—what some might call our egoic consciousness—desperately cling to the illusion of certainty. This isn’t a character flaw; it’s a deeply human response to an unpredictable world. Our brains are prediction machines,...

by DW Green — August 20, 2025

“True enthusiasm emerges from a kind of sacred surrender – when we stop trying to manufacture meaning and instead allow ourselves to be touched by what is already present.”

Despite our endless limitations, it seems that the qualities of attention, risk, and compassion allow us to be at one with the energy of the Whole and the result is enthusiasm, that deep sensation of oneness. Enthusiasm is not a mood that can be willed or forced. Rather, it is the ripple that follows the stone. It can only be felt after we immerse ourselves in life.True enthusiasm emerges from a kind of sacred surrender – when we stop trying to manufacture meaning and instead allow ourselves to be touched by what is already present. It requires the willingness to pay attention so completely that the boundary between observer and observed begins to dissolve. This is why genuine enthusiasm feels so different from mere excitement or manufactured positivity. It carries the weight of the whole, the recognition that we are participating in something far larger than our individual concerns.The risk involved is not physical danger, but the courage to let ourselves be moved, to care deeply despite uncertainty. We risk disappointment, yes, but more fundamentally we risk the d...

by DW Green — August 13, 2025

“The flower doesn’t struggle with being both beautiful and medicinal. It doesn’t
wonder if it should focus on aesthetics or healing. It simply expresses its
complete nature moment by moment, allowing all its qualities to emerge
naturally from its essential being.”

There’s a moment in every garden when you might find yourself captivated by a single flower—perhaps a golden helichrysum swaying in the breeze, or a vibrant rose catching the morning light. In that moment of simple appreciation, you’re witnessing something far more profound than you might realize: a perfect teacher of non-dual awareness, demonstrating the seamless unity that underlies all apparent separation.THE ILLUSION OF “BOTH/AND”We tend to describe flowers in terms of multiple attributes: “This helichrysum is beautiful AND it has healing properties.” “That lavender is fragrant AND it’s therapeutic.” “These roses are gorgeous AND they contain beneficial compounds.” This language of duality feels natural—we’re describing different aspects of the same thing, after all.But pause for a moment and consider: where exactly does the beauty end and the healing begin? At what precise point do the visual qualitie...

by DW Green — August 6, 2025

“The practice… might simply be staying open to the possibility that the next
moment of beauty is always just one relaxed breath away.”

I was walking through our new office space today when something stopped me in my tracks. There, along the
edge of a piece of furniture, lay a delicate wave of dust. Not the kind that makes you reach for a cloth, but a gentle accumulation that caught the afternoon light just so. For a moment, it was genuinely beautiful.This wasn’t a poetic stretch or an attempt to find meaning where none existed. In that instant of true seeing, the dust simply was beautiful – as real and undeniable as any sunset or flower that might typically earn that description.WHEN THE ORDINARY REVEALS ITSELFThese moments of spontaneous beauty don’t announce themselves. They emerge when we’re not trying to find them, when our usual filters drop away for just an instant. One moment you’re moving through your day on autopilot, the next moment a wave of dust becomes a small miracle.It’s the same phenomenon that makes us suddenly notice the way light moves across a wall, or how a stranger’s laugh carries a particular music, or how the pattern of raindrops on glass creates its own fleeting ...

by DW Green — July 30, 2025

“Music, I realized that evening, is one of grief’s most generous companions.”

In that moment, as the notes pierced me to the core, I understood something profound. Music doesn’t just entertain—it archives us. It preserves not only the sound of an era, but the feeling of it. A single song can hold the essence of who we were when it first moved us, ready to awaken that younger self decades later.That truth came rushing back to me at Sandy’s viewing last week. Sandy had been a cherished family friend for years. Life had pulled us in different directions, and I hadn’t seen her or her family for several years. But there had been a time when our lives intertwined regularly—holiday meals around crowded tables, birthday celebrations, anniversary toasts, graduation parties, and countless other gatherings that form the fabric of friendship.Walking into the funeral home that evening, I expected the familiar weight of grief. What I found instead was something unexpected: joy.Seeing Sandy’s family gathered together again stirred something deep within me—a symphony of emotions that I struggled to name. But it was Sandy’s daughter Jill who had orchestrated something truly remarkable. She had carefully curated a sou...

by DW Green — July 23, 2025

“Trees model that kind of authentic, singular presence we’re all seeking.”

Yesterday my nephew gave me a beautiful leather-bound journal with pages that have torn edges. The cover is forest green with an embossed tree image, complete with leather binding and a green leather strap to close it. Since my handwriting is atrocious, I plan to print out my writings and glue them to the journal pages. As I was thinking about the journal and trees, I found myself contemplating singularity as a fundamental tree quality.Trees embody singularity in several beautiful ways:Individual uniqueness – No two trees are exactly alike, even of the same species. Each one carries the story of its particular soil, weather, struggles, and growth patterns. My palm trees each have their own character, their own way of swaying, their own bark texture.Wholeness – A tree is completely itself at every moment. It’s not trying to become something else or wishing it were different. There’s that quality of being singular, unified, complete as it stands.Present-moment existence – Trees live in pure “now-ness.” They respond to this season, this day’s light, this moment’s wind. They don’t worry about ...

by DW Green — July 16, 2025

“Trees stand as living proof that quiet persistence can move mountains—one root, one ring, one season at a time.”

There’s something that happens when I stand before a tree—any tree. Whether it’s the ancient oak in my neighborhood park or the slender birch swaying in my backyard, I find myself drawn into a world that speaks in whispers older than human language. The Language of the SensesTrees speak first through our senses. The earthy sweetness of pine needles crushed underfoot. The rich, loamy scent that rises from bark after rain. Each species carries its own signature fragrance—the sharp clarity of eucalyptus, the warm vanilla notes of ponderosa pine, the green freshness of maple in spring. Then there’s the texture that calls to our most primal curiosity.

by DW Green — July 9, 2025

“In surrendering control, we don’t lose power—we align with a power that transcends our limited perspective.”

Surrender is simply accepting the reality that we are not in control. When we set ourselves up to think we deserve, expect, or need certain things to happen, we are setting ourselves up for constant unhappiness and a final inability to enjoy or at least allow what is going to happen anyway. After a while, we find ourselves resisting almost everything at some level. It is a terrible way to live.But here’s the crucial insight: without awareness, we remain blind to our own controlling patterns. We can’t surrender what we don’t recognize we’re grasping.The Hidden Tyranny of Control Most of us live under the illusion that we’re managing life well, making reasonable plans, setting healthy boundaries. But awareness reveals a deeper truth: we’re often engaged in an exhausting, futile battle to control outcomes that were never ours to control in the first place. We try to control:

How others respond to us
The timing of opportunities
Our children’s choices and failures
The progression of illness or aging
Economic conditions and social change
Even our ow
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The Other Side of Leadership: Beyond Problem-Solving

by DW Green — July 2, 2025

“When the Other within you arrives, honor that part of yourself as a guest.”

To live with shadow awareness, we must follow the detours. We walk into the debris, groping our way through dark corridors and past dead ends. We search for the key in the most difficult places to find. Shadow work asks us to turn toward what we’ve avoided. It asks us to stop blaming others. It asks us to take responsibility.It asks us to move slowly and deepen our awareness. It asks us to hold paradox, to open our hearts, and to sacrifice our ideals of perfection. Most importantly, it asks us to live the mystery.We suggest approaching the shadow as a mystery rather than as a problem to be solved or an illness to be cured. When the Other within you arrives, honor that part of yourself as a guest. You may discover it comes bearing unexpected gifts. You may find that shadow work is, indeed, soul work.