Recollections of decades ago that seem like the distant past, and just yesterday, often dance in my awareness. I hear my inner voice harkening back to what seemed like glory days but, in reality (and retrospect), were often fraught with racism and sexism. I remember the penny candy store, where we could buy red juju […]
Category Archives: Inspirational Writing
Headlines, primarily negative, race across my screen as I start today’s post on “Change.” It seems—more than ever—that our world is truly broken. (Perhaps it’s just me.) Change is burdensome for many humans. Pre COVID-19, it seemed as if many of us were somewhat complacent, buoyed by what we considered the rhythm of our blessed […]
Twelve —often considered the “perfect” number. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, twelve is symbolic of God’s authority and perfection. Biblically, there are 187 references, including Jacob’s twelve sons and the ancestors of Israel’s twelve tribes. In ancient Greece, twelve gods of Olympus were worshiped. In Buddhism, there are twelve stages of existence (Nidanas). Twelve lines create […]
This post is dedicated to the people who bravely share their vulnerabilities, pain, and feelings of not being enough; the people who believe they don’t fit in or matter or make a difference; the honest and genuine people who speak their truth. The night was calm, almost apathetic, just like her mind and body and, […]
Insight is critical. It’s the ability to understand humans and situations—deeply and intuitively—seeing through the lens of discernment and awareness, opening not only our minds but also our larger world consciousness. When we view life—both the minutiae and the giant, loud “can’t miss” thing—and then harness our awareness to see inward, our sensitivities are altered. […]
When “the grass seems greener on the other side,” you look over the “fence”—literally or proverbially—and see your neighbor’s “lawn” as healthier than yours. But, just like us worn-down mortals with eroded and less-than-perfect parts of us, you’re often not close enough to recognize the crabgrass, brown patches, or bare places. As humans, we often have a bias […]
• Do you ever feel like you’re firmly on solid ground— life is completely stable; everything’s under control; you’re easily putting one foot in front of the other? • Do you ever feel like you’re walking on an uneven path—sometimes you’re on stable ground, but other times you could make just one tiny misstep and fall? • […]
I know people who spend money purchasing beautiful art, creating memorable experiences and enjoying gastronomic feasts. Some use their income and energy creating homes that feed their souls. Others live frugally so that they can support causes that pull at their heartstrings. I see people, who have very little financially, give much of what they […]
Yesterday, I was downstairs in the shop organizing hardware storage cabinets. Small bins hold everything from nails and screws to plumbing and electrical parts, and they’re all labeled by their contents, so we know where things are. The process is pretty mindless. For example, screws are separated by drives like slotted, Phillips, and hex. Sorting […]
This isn’t a “happy” story about lasagna, green sweaters or cloth napkins. It’s a story about humanness and brokenness. I’m not talking about broken hearts but, rather, broken spirits— when you know you have worth, but can’t count it, when it feels like life has been sucked out of you, when you’ve lost, given up, or […]
Last year, I had the opportunity to visit Prague in the Czech Republic with my friend, Jill. The travel conditions were perfect: the weather would be cooperative, the dollar was strong, we had separate rooms to retreat to for quiet and we would be traveling with a group of people—affording us the guarantee of same-language speaking […]
Each day as I get out of bed I say, “Thank You God”. In my more aware moments, I tack on some of the other easy “thank yous”: a new day, my health, my family, etcetera. Those aren’t insincere—it’s just that they’re so darned easy to name. Sitting in my quiet (in spite of the rambunctious […]
The topic of the last three posts—a different kind of abundance—tackles the, often tough, issue of how we experience a fullness of life that’s not tied to an abundance of physical “stuff”. 11/2 part 1– initial questions, why we have so much stuff 11/3 part 2– guidelines for owning possessions, how to define clutter, the […]
When I was in high school, a local furniture store gifted to all of the graduating senior girls a “miniature hope chest”. A hope chest is where, at least in bygone years, a young woman collected items—like household linens—that she’d use when she got married. Maybe the idea was that “hoping for” helped to create […]
Self can represent your physicality, your qualities, your psyche, your individuality, or the character of who you are. From a philosophical perspective self is the ego, the core of us, the soul or spirit that unites all of our experiences. The Creation of Self The process of “the creation of self” is what we continually […]
Many years ago I had the wonderful privilege of being with people who are—on the surface only of course—different from me. I was in La Entrada, Honduras on a mission trip with others from my faith community. It was a time that was rich with emotion and learning. In spite of speaking mostly through an […]
Feeling Alone Last week my daughter Erin—a clinical trials & research nurse—sent me a very dismal report about loneliness. Then, I stumbled upon a piece on the same subject while researching something else. And, in the past few weeks, I’ve talked to at least four people about loneliness. When there’s a recurring theme, it’s a […]
Many of us run through life, like a child in a proverbial candy store—grabbing this and that experience, not really tasting all the “flavors”—simply consuming life. When we’re racing through experiences, we aren’t fully participating in them. We’re simply snapping screen shots as we jump from one thing to another. Because there’s so much going […]
In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day the main character is a weatherman named Phil who gets caught in a blizzard that he didn’t accurately predict. He becomes stuck in a time warp, reliving the same day over and over until he gets it “right”. There’s a lot of literature about the underlying significance of this […]
Grace One morning, without even “trying”, I found myself in a place of grace. The feeling was palpable although nothing looked different. It was experienced rather than seen. (Sometimes, we humans don’t believe something’s real unless we can see it and touch it.) At first, this incipient energy created only a subtle shift in the […]
Editing—a fundamentally necessary process to get to the heart of the matter; to revise or expunge or correct When you watch a movie or read a book—or a post like this—it’s likely been edited. Without editing, there may be typos, grammar issues, inconsistencies, and the absence of a through-line (the common thread that ties it […]
Good Morning Beautiful Friend. How are you my Precious Daughter? You are so Creative! You’re a Worthless Loser. You are such a Clumsy Jerk! How can you be so Stupid and Ugly? You did a Wonderful job! How can you always be so Generous? You’re a Valuable team member. You were an unwanted Mistake. Why are you so Useless? Get lost you Freak! Your […]
Priority definition: that one thing which takes precedence over all else; what we give foremost, and special, attention to. We’ve lost the idea of having a priority in life. Even the plural— priorities—refers to two to four things, not the dozen (or hundred) we have on our “this is what I must do” lists. If you […]
How often do we give ourselves permission to “be”— to walk past the “to do” list, to ignore the insistent demands of technology, to take the time to be fully with others, or ourselves or God, to be okay, to simply be? One day, when I had no scheduled client appointments, I chose to let the […]
We often have a myopic view of the world, which limits us from “seeing” outside our own—frequently very limited—life. This narrow perspective leads to behavior that can be anything from inconsiderate to downright mean. We get so caught up in our reality that we don’t “see” how we sometimes behave. I truly believe that “nice” is underrated. I also believe […]
peace full home®—intentional living 