The holidays are our celebration of the solstice, a time of year where the past year ends and a new year begins, a time when we experience the darkest day of the year and a shift to ever growing light. It is also a time of reviewing our year so like sculptors we can reshape the coming year in a more productive way. I hope the holidays bring you hope and joy.   THE OPENING OF EYES That day I saw beneath dark clouds the passing light over the water and I heard the voice of the world speak out, I knew then, as I had before life is no passing memory of what has been nor the remaining pages in ..read more

Happy Holidays! The holiest of all holidays are those Kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart, When the full river of feeling overflows;– The happy days unclouded to their close; The sudden joys that out of darkness start As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart Like swallows singing down each wind that blows! White as the gleam of a receding sail, White as a cloud that floats and fades in air, White as the whitest lily on a stream, These tender memories are;–a fairy tale Of some enchanted land we know not where, But lovely as a landscape in a dream ..read more

I came across the poem by Mary Oliver. I loved the groundedness, the trust, and the renewal it expressed. I hope you enjoy it. Sleeping In The Forest I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All nigh ..read more

Photo by Marina Khrapova on Unsplash I was asked about how to enjoy the holidays to minimize overstimulation and exhaustion. The holidays are adding additional stimulation and exhaustion on top of all of the exhaustion of the pandemic. These are my suggestions for sensitive people and empaths. Sensitive people are easily overwhelmed by the frenzy of the holiday season. The spirit of the season and their own generous spirits can easily result in becoming overcommitted and overworked.  Here are ways to make the holiday season more pleasurable without making your own life miserable: the fir ..read more

I am sharing this piece by David Whyte because of his beautiful articulation of the deeply felt experience of living, especially in gratitude. Please visit his website for more of his writings and programs. They are worth your time and investment. I hope you have an enjoyable holiday filled with everything wonderful and good. GRATITUDE is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without and beside us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after th ..read more

We have a story about limitlessness in our cultural story, which, on the surface, sounds terrific. It means not having limits or bounds and is pretty much an anything-goes way of thinking. It is obviously wrong since nature is telling us to chill, unfortunately, without much effect. What happens with the idea of limitlessness is that some things are unexamined; one of those things is what we invest our time and energy in. What is also not considered is the price of that investment and the cost to us, others, and the well-being of our planet. Are Our Investments Self-Defeating? We always have s ..read more

I have noticed more and more how much of our social conversation and social focal point is about rejection. I see it all over the media, in all sorts of topic areas. In politics, it seems to be a never-ending discussion about polls and who is up or down, who is “winning” or who is being rejected. We also hear that people vote based on their feelings of rejection. Is rejection all that matters? So many products are sold based on the idea that owning them means you are included, and not owning them means you are an outsider. How many things do we buy not to appear like we are “losers” – the ones ..read more

When we experience rejection, sometimes it is based on something remiss in what we have done, but too often, it occurs because we do not conform to societal norms. However, we rarely get a direct and honest explanation for our rejection. When we are not conforming, many will feel threatened because the security of the social group, large or small, town or nation, is based on conforming to a certain way of living or a set of accepted beliefs. Each culture is like an enterprise, with everyone working for a particular objective. Different cultures have different objectives. Loyalty Is About Cultu ..read more

Photo by Ashley Anthony on Unsplash Does it seem like some kind of wet blanket hovers over you? Have you ever wondered why the “bad” feelings never seem to go away? Why is it that these negative feelings are so readily available? Why is so much that we are offered cloaked in some kind of negative feeling? Are All Feelings Real? In one way all feelings are real if they are felt. However, not all feelings derive from the same place. If you stub your toe, you will feel pain. It is a feeling generated by your experience. There is another type of feeling, however – the feelings created by the stori ..read more

We live in a world that focuses on the bad and seems to believe that ideas about badness are more real than ideas about goodness. This is a huge mistake and one that affects us in many negative ways. Once we rectify this mistake, we can feel freer and happier. So many people struggle to feel good about themselves. So many people fear being seen as inadequate, less than, and irrelevant. I once heard an accomplished and well-known art critic talk about how her biggest fear is being irrelevant despite being highly regarded. It is a mistake to treat the good in people, their talent, and their cont ..read more