Resilience – Basics
When It Rains, It Pours
2020 has been a year of “when it rains, it pours” for most of us. The catastrophe of the global pandemic, with one crisis or difficulty after another piling on top of each other. Mini-mini example for me: on top of sheltering-in-place for the better part of nine months, not going anywhere, not working with […]
Becoming a Wise Elder
We become elders by accepting life on life’s terms, gradually relinquishing the fight to have it fit our expectations. Elders have no quarrel with the ways of the world. Initiated through many years of loss, they have come to know that life is hard, riddled with failures, betrayals and deaths. They have made peace with […]
Choosing to Choose
Part of my coping with my broken shoulder bone, immobilized in a sling, is discerning what I can no longer do for myself, at least for another month, what I still can do, what I can ask for-allow others to do for me. My daily, mini-excursion into the serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity […]
Fall-Down-Get-Up – All One Word
Here’s the link to an absolutely delightful – and instructive – 6 minute video Oy Vey to a New Way by Naomi Newman, brilliant co-founder of the Traveling Jewish Theater. Naomi teaches that fall-down-get-up is one word, one action, a seamless response to the difficulties and disasters of life. Deep wisdom in delightfully inspiring theater. […]
Anchors Rather than Answers
No one knows for sure when this pandemic will be over. When it will be safe to eat out, get your hair cut, visit friends without masks, attend a live football game or a live concert, when students can sit in a classroom with fellow students again. For some, coping with so many uncertainties and […]
Stability and Sea Change
So much about resilience is the nimble dance between being stable – secure, grounded, resourced – and flexible – able to shift, pivot, change our minds, change course. As we see in my 84 year-old friend Bev, sharing a lifelong love of literature with her long-time book club, 5 going-strong seniors now meeting monthly outdoors […]
We Make a Decision…and Then They Change the Rules
A common lament these days… we finally make a decision once and for all – about sending our kids back to school this fall for hybrid learning – two days in the classroom, two days home for online learning – or keeping them home altogether for online learning only, or even weighing the possibilities of […]
Finding an Upward Spiral of Resilience – Even in the Hardest of Times
While researching Barbara Frederickson’s suggestions for a media diet [see Information Overload – Dealing with the Deluge Wisely], I re-discovered her “toolkit” from her book Positivity: Discover the Upward Spiral that Will Change Your Life. Excellent suggestions, all very doable and very relevant to resilience. May they be helpful to you and yours. 1. Be […]
Decision Fatigue
“Decision fatigue,” my friend Stacey said the other day. “Will schools be open in the fall? Is it safe to take the kids to the beach? Should I try to see my dentist now or wait a little bit longer?” It’s our powerful higher brain that makes our decisions all day long – weighing options, […]
When Bending with the Wind Becomes a Full 180-Degree Pivot
At the very moment the order to shelter in place came down in mid-March, Roshi Joan Halifax “hermetically sealed” Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico and “flipped” an in-person chaplaincy training that was scheduled to start in 48 hours to an entirely online format. 60 students now participating in a community of wise […]