Practices for Recovering Resilience
Beyond the Personal to the Common Good
A crew cut down three 80-year-old Italian cypress trees in my back yard last week; orders from the local fire department to reduce the danger from wildfires; beautiful Italian cypress trees not native to California, known to be full of resin and highly flammable. Poignant. Growing for decades before I moved here. Bowing to the […]
From the Middle of a Whirlwind
Every once in a while, everything that needs to be done piles up on top of everything else. I’m coping, for sure, and things will get less congested in a few days. But to create something breathing space, I’m recycling a December 2016 newsletter that is still exceptionally relevant right now: Weather Difficult Times: Be […]
A Resurgence of Vitality
It’s been a long slog through this pandemic – sheltering, restrictions, vaccines, variants. And so much heartache if we pay attention to the news of refugees exiled because of war and hunger, rising threats to democracy here and abroad, and climate disasters. (I live in northern California and automatically check the air quality reports first […]
Tired of Your Inner Critic? – Here’s How to Retire It
I have just about had it with my inner critic – the irritating self-critical remarks I hear so often when I’m just trying to live my life – “Oops, that wasn’t very smart, was it?” “Are you kidding? Now they’ll really know you don’t know what you’re doing.” Maybe you have an inner critic, too. […]
Peace in the Midst of No Peace
The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is this weekend. There will be many reflections and many retrospectives from many different points of view. I’m offering the perspective of American poet, environmental activist, and farmer, Wendell Berry. The Peace of Wild Things was written in 1968, as turbulent a […]
Labor Day – Valuing Good Work and Hard Working
Labor Day was a holiday celebrated in my family as an actual day to remember and respect the legacy of hard work that had allowed my immigrant grandparents to gain a toehold in the American dream. My Irish grandfather digging sewer ditches for the city of Chicago. My Polish grandparents farming the rocky soil in […]
Loving the Worry Part
My friend Elizabeth was asked to comfort her 9-year old grand-daughter Amy who had suddenly become afraid to go to sleep at night. Afraid something would happen and she wouldn’t wake up. Elizabeth is an experienced therapist as well as a loving grandmother, so she and Amy scheduled a FaceTime session, and a few days […]
Complaining – A Cue for Compassion
A simple new practice, in the larger framework of: Compassion – caring for and acting to relieve suffering – is one of the two wings of the dharma in the Buddhist contemplative tradition. Wisdom and compassion – seeing clearly and responding with loving concern and wise action – are the practices that allow us to […]
Life Beyond the Fish Tank
The beloved poet and spiritual teacher Mark Nepo recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the publication of his New York Times best-selling The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have by reading some of the most moving and enlightening poems/meditations/essays in a recent webinar. Inspiring enough […]
Me…We…and Thee – Experience Creates…and Shifts…Our Relational Identities
In Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age, Bruce Feiler offers an interesting conceptualization of relational identities: me, we, and thee. ME is a focus on one’s self, an individual’s goals and aspirations and efforts to achieve/fulfill them. He suggests folks focused on the unfolding of their individual story, the particulars of […]