Letting life “cure” us
Every day, life burnishes and “cures” us —sometimes by the unexpected and dramatic, sometimes by the routine and ordinary. We feel, we love, we celebrate, we grieve, and we grow. I walk to the paddock each morning and see cycles of life—beginning, maturing, and fading—playing out before me. The impending death of a 29-year-old horse […]
An Unlikely Path to Humility and Mindfulness
When I taught several groups of Japanese managers near Tokyo, one of the qualities I most admired was their humility and consideration of others. It felt like a refreshing change from the US cult of the individual—with its encouragement to “look out for number one” and “climb the ladder to the top”—no matter what the impact […]
Have you taken the AI challenge
(Hint: It helps to be human) The rapid advance of AI technology feels dizzying, exciting, and terrifying. New technology is outpacing our capacity to understand its consequences. Moral reasoning, unfortunately, cannot be rushed into production. Neither, alas, can human caring. Maybe it’s time to ask Alexa (Google’s AI assistant), “Alexa, how do we make the […]
A Gift from an Unusual Source
What if you could strengthen the qualities you need by feeling your connections with friends who have died? I know this may sound a little weird, but hang with me. You don’t need to believe in the afterlife, or really anything, to follow what I’ve been discovering. That’s often the case with folks we have loved […]
A humble, life saving, brain easing tool
While preparing for my about-to-launch art show, a friend helping me (Thanks, Kymm!) created a checklist to guide my work. On it were little boxes with the many tasks before me. My first reaction was, “But, I know this. already.” Then, I realized she’d given me a great gift that would ease my mind as […]
CJ Miller The Spiritual Artist
Chris Miller (CJ) is an entrepreneur, artist, writer, and speaker. He’s a lifelong Spiritual learner who has spent the last 20 years examining the creative process and its relationship to spirituality. He’s the author of the book, The Spiritual Artist and produces a podcast by the same name in which he interviews artists and spiritual […]
Bringing all our parts to the table
We have “no bad parts,” at least according to Dr. Richard Schwartz, founder of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach to psychotherapy. By parts, he means aspects of our personality, some of which evolved to support us, in ways that may not serve us well in our current lives. He teaches that: “Our inner parts contain […]
Sparking creativity with curiosity and joy
Words from a creative genius Maybe the essence of creativity isn’t complicated. Or maybe we should replace the word “creative” (to help those who doubt that they are creative) with more accessible words like “radically curious” and “passionately playful.” This week, I took a deep dive into the words of a creative master, who has […]
Michael Williams: Storytelling as a Healing Practice
Dr. Michael Williams is a Canadian-born storyteller who spent three decades living in Scotland, where he honed his skills as an oral storyteller. We talk about our mutual love of storytelling as we trace Michael’s history as a contemporary bard in Europe and Canada. Living in Scotland, he honed his skills as an oral storyteller […]
There Goes the Sun (da, da, da, da, da)
In a world that’s full of darkness, it’s nice, even miraculous, when something pulls us into the light together. Usually, it takes something dreadful to rally us as a country—stuff like war, a common enemy, a bellicose leader, or a terrible tragedy. Last week the sun and moon pulled off the ultimate convening event—a dazzling […]
