Awe-Gratitude-Joy
Endearing, Wacky, and Filled with Hope
My colleague Gary Gross sent me the link to this enchanting “inspired wackiness”, Ike Babbitt: America’s One Man Band, produced by his long-time friend Alan Babbitt during the idleness/isolation of the COVID lockdown to honor the ingenuity and “can do” spirit of his father, Ike Babbitt. It’s an enchanting piece of Americana: a son of […]
Attitudes of Gratitude with Chronic Pain
As we approach days of Thanksgiving in the U.S., I’m delighted to share with you a spirited conversation I had with Lauren Zalewski about “Gratitude Leads to Resilience” for her online Attitudes of Gratitude with Chronic Pain group. Here’s the link. After a 5-minute intro about Lauren’s programs and groups, we talked about: What resilience […]
Enjoy the Glimmers and Spurts
My good friend Deb Dana’s book Anchored was published last week by Sounds True. It’s a very user-friendly guide to calming the nervous system and returning to ease and contentment in times of stress and distress. Perfect timing for our world today. In Anchored, Deb explores the importance of catching glimmers as we go throughout […]
The Deep Joy that Transcends Anything – Any Suffering, Any Grief, Any Devastation or Oppression, Anything at All
How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering? The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World is about so much more than the flavors of joy: pleasure, amusement, contentment, excitement, relief, delight, wonder, rejoicing, bliss, exultation, radiant pride, unhealthy jubilation or schadenfreude), elevation, gratitude, spiritual radiance… Or the familiar […]
Awe and Ache
Awe and ache – one of those examples of the yin-yang of the human condition, these days, in all days. The fullness of one always containing the seed of the other. Gratitude and grief is another example – dive deep enough into gratitude for what is; there will come grief for its eventual, inevitable loss. […]
Fall in Love with the Earth Again
April 22 is Earth Day, people all over the world honoring the beautiful, unique-in-the-universe planet we call home; people all over the world working very hard to repair the damage we have done, especially in the 50 years since people starting celebrating Earth Day. I think falling in love with the earth again is falling […]
9,000 Ways to Be a Plant
I went to college near Chicago – long, cold, snowy-icy winters. On campus, crocuses would start to push their blossoms through the snow in late April-early May. Hope! Spring! Warmer weather. Like hope pushing through the murk now as people get vaccinated and the number of new coronavirus cases slowly comes down. Last week, when […]
Joyful Movement as Shoulder Heals
This joyful, playful, energizing (4 minute) video was sent to me by friends when they learned my shoulder is healing well and was released from its sling three days ago after being immobilized 24/7 for 6 weeks. While I may not dance as exuberantly as the folks of all ages and races in this video, and […]
Gratitude – In Joy and In Pain
A friend sent me this link on Thanksgiving Day to a joyful, uplifting invocation to gratitude from people from all over the world. I knew I would have to post it as a belated Thanksgiving greeting to readers of this newsletter. Try it! It’s brief in time but so deep in heartfulness and joy. Then, the morning I was […]
More uplift
Every morning an image of a cloud such as the image above arrives in my inbox from the Cloud Appreciation Society. And two weeks ago accompanied by this quote: It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in which nature has done more […]