Suzanne Anderson: The transformational path of grief
When her beloved husband took his life, and with it her life as she knew it, Suzanne Anderson faced a choice: would […]
Friendship in a Post-Pandemic world
Did friendship change during the pandemic? It’s hard to say. But I know what changed for me: I don’t take it for […]
Diana Place—Creating a new story in the 3rd Act of life
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW Diana’s journey from AOL exec to social entrepreneur. How we can get hooked to institutions that aren’t good […]
To practice receiving
A dear friend living in the shadows of cancer, With death on the horizon, Sat with me and said, “Throughout my life, […]
Nine Reasons NOT to Write a Book* (*unless you must)
1. Writing a book takes time—more than you can imagine. Whoever purports: “You can write a book in ten days” (or two […]
Bringing light into dark
Monday morning, my husband asked me to read a heavily researched article about a small pack of men who had been systematically […]
Blank is Beautiful
I learned the joy in blankness as I played with my new favorite toy—a “Buddha Board.” The device lets you channel your […]
Tiny beautiful acts—a 100-day creative challenge
Could devoting yourself to tiny acts of beauty, gratitude, or creation for 100 days change your life? It did for Suleika Jaouad, […]
Six questions to expand the creative you
Does your creative spirit ever feel tamped down or just-around-the-corner-but-out-of-reach? When that happens to me, I have two approaches to rediscovering my […]
Debbie Weiss: Love, loss. and starting over after 50
When Debbie Weiss lost her husband of 30 years before she was 50, she learned life lessons that she has shared through […]
How to be embodied in a world that’s increasingly not—eight simple steps
The signs of disembodiment are everywhere. Our 24-7 culture seems better suited to constantly-turned-on robots than to humans who do better when […]
Dropping “should” for “I prefer”
Yesterday, I faced a blank blog post without an idea of what to write. No ideas. It was too late in the […]
Six Easy Ways to Improve Your Storytelling
Last week, during an informal presentation I gave on storytelling, a man asked me a fabulous question: ”I can tell that you’re […]
We Don’t Need to Know Before We Go
One of the cool things about artists is that they often start their pieces (and I’m defining artist in the broadest possible […]
Lois Holzman-the art of becoming through play and performance
Dr. Lois Holzman is a performance activist who helps people and communities worldwide to discover new hope and possibilities for who they […]
Isidra Mencos: Sex, salsa and a great story
Isidra Mencos is a writer, writing coach, and author of the stunning new memoir Promenade of Desire: A Barcelona Memoir. We talk […]
Message from the Matrix: “You are not creative”
In the movie The Matrix, the hero faces a choice. The blue pill or the red pill. Stay with the known world […]
Give your brain a break—extend your mind
Where does the mind live? In our brains? Our bodies? The environment? Each other? Some mix? Or, as philosophers Andy Clark and […]
Look at the past—bring in the light. Happy 2023
2023 is here. Happy New Year. The light is returning—a good time to reflect on the year that was and, as we […]
Embracing darkness/celebrating light
We’re on countdown to the winter solstice next week—the darkest time of the year. I have mild seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and […]
Stop the delivery mania: An Open letter to Santa
I don’t want to seem ungrateful, Santa, and I hope all is well at the North Pole. I know this year’s supply […]
Planting hope
This week I planted daffodils. There’s nothing remarkable about this, although some might question why I waited to dig holes in the […]
Stepping back from the precipice of stress
I blew off a meeting this week, a short talk I was to give, and my mistake left me humbled. As awful […]
The art of waiting
Waiting. We do a lot of it. Waiting in traffic, in the checkout, or for that blankity-blank Amazon delivery. Sometimes there’s a […]
How to let go before the elections
If, like me, you’re prone to even a little anxiety, the days prior to the midterm elections in the United States can be […]
Finding magic in my pencil
There are many ways to get to know someone, even someone we haven’t met, and this week I’ve been playing with one […]
Should I say, “thank you” to “Alexa?”
Are chatbots making human interaction transactional during a time when human civility is increasingly endangered? I put the idea to the test […]
Alex Doman, Sound and brain health entrepreneur
Alex Doman is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, psychoacoustic music producer, and TEDx speaker with more than twenty-five years’ experience in neurotechnology. His […]
Lessons from the Harvest
I love fall with its colors, coolness, beauty, and the poignancy of knowing that winter is coming and the rains will start. […]
Cracking the code on living longer
What if there were a remedy available that could extend your life by more than seven years? And be even better for […]
Today. This Day. Right Now.
Today as I sat quietly, sort of meditating, preparing to take my husband to physical therapy, five words came to me: Today. […]
Setting Myself on Fire, or the Power of Moments
Some events in our life stand out like none others–so disorienting that they challenge us to know where we are and maybe […]
If you hang in there, things will (probably) work out
Lesson number two from my time in Italy: Things may not work out the way you wanted or expected, but hang in […]
The art of nothing-ing
September is here, school bells have rung, and I’m here with my first blog since leaving for Italy. I missed you even […]
Margo Weinstein: author, adventurer, Mom
Margo Weinstein is a traveler, intrepid adventurer, class-action lawyer, and single mom. Educated at Yale College and Northwestern University School of Law, […]
Finding human in a transactional world
I stood at the parking meter, fuming. I had just scored a parking place near the Seattle hospital where I planned to […]
Are we crazy?
I’ve had it. Another shooting. And children, for god’s sake. .Let’s call this for what it is. Insanity. We talk about mental […]
Dr. Juliet Bruce Finding Sanctuary in Story
Juliet Bruce, PhD uses myth, storytelling, and expressive arts to help those struggling with hardship, trauma, and the challenges of living in […]
Creating “normal”
Years ago, you wouldn’t have heard me craving “normal.” Picturing myself as creative, I’d have called normal too dull, predictable, and routine. […]
Living in Limbo-Land
y husband has Covid, and I may be next. I’m officially in limbo (call it quarantined). Overnight, life changed. I canceled plans and […]
Sing the Song that Wants to Come Through You
Last week, a friend thanked me profusely for a two-word expression I shared with her seven years ago: “both/and.” The words helped […]
Finding the Secret to Magic
Magic was a way, for a moment, of stepping away from what other people taught me, to a place where a different kind […]
STOP!
STOP!Fermati!Arrête !СТОП! STOP! is a good word to have in your pocket. It’s short, abrupt, and good in emergencies. When I ride […]
If Trees Could Weep
If trees could weep, would they send sorrowsinto the groundthrough roots, mycelium,into rivers and seas? Blending stories from birch and beech, spruce and […]
Life as improv–Nine rules for a better performance
In my sixties, I did a number of improvisational theatre classes, until the pandemic hit. I miss the fun, but no matter. […]
The fog from war
I’m feeling foggy and overwhelmed again. Dang. After two-plus years of Covid-brain, I thought the fog had lifted. But another fog has […]
To care without despair
How to avoid depair as we continue to care? And create without hate? I’ve had to meter my news so that I […]
Use that anger so that it doesn’t use you
Anger is a natural part of life. It comes and goes, like the wind, unless like a broken fan in the summer, […]
Using the fire of anger to create beauty
Uncontrolled anger kills. Combined with political motives and manipulation it starts wars. It’s challenging not to be angry and scared by Russia’s […]
Discover before you plan
“It may be that when we no longer know what to dowe have come to our real work,and that when we no […]
Reimagining the conversations around dementia, death, and dying with Mary Fridley
The Coalition recently debuted a song and video “Let’s Reimagine” as a musical “call to action” for anyone who believes we can, […]
Imagine a new world–through song
“It’s a bold day.Let’s create a world where everyone can thrive.A together day when the joy of one is the joy of […]
Coming back to our senses (in the year of the tiger)
Humans are born reactors. Living in a world of saber-toothed tigers, we learned to know danger when we sensed the animal was […]
Walk slowly (RIP Thich Nhat Hanh)
“Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment […]
How to invite Beauty into your life
I’ve been craving Beauty as we pass through the darkest time of year. Fortunately, she’s everywhere when we seek her, send her love, […]
Can the pandemic crack us open?
By some reports, we may be in for another two years of the pandemic. I recently heard it referred to as an era, […]
Let your imagination inspire reality
Sometimes what comes out of our imaginations can seem truer than the accurate words the dictionary knows or the facts we’ve held […]
Brain still foggy? This can help.
It’s happening again—brain fog. I need to write things down to remember them. Then, I forget that I need to write things […]
Wiggle your toes to calm your mind
Recently, I wrote about “Breaking the grip of self-judgment.” This week, I discovered some tools that can help. In Positive Intelligence Shirzad Chamine writes that we […]
Breaking the grip of self-judgment
Self-judgment is a nasty critter. Under the guise of inviting us to learn, it amplifies any mistakes we’ve made and makes it […]
Are we becoming Zoom zombies?
I’m about to do my first talk as a presenter at a Zoom conference. I’m not worried about what I’m going to […]
Can we think about that, please?
Tapping my deep knowing or intuition helps me navigate life from a place of inner-directedness. The question, “What am I feeling called […]
Pausing for fall colors
Labels are tricky. When we view the world through our labels, we may never see it as it is. Yet, names and labels […]
Did Darwin Get it Wrong?
At the suggestion of a friend, I recently watched Fantastic Fungi. Normally, a movie about mycelium and mushrooms wouldn’t be my top pick […]
How to become expert at beginner’s mind
I’m in that lovely stage of discovery, in which I’m not expected to know anything. I have room to play, make mistakes, […]
How to love what you don’t like (to do)
Doing what you love and loving what you do opens the door to more creativity, insight, and fun. But what happens when […]
To Bless the Space Between Us
“What good could live between you and me for the sake of us?” I remember the first days after the Twin Towers […]
Time for the Turning
Years ago, I loved to listen to Gordon Bok singing “Turning Towards the Morning” on well-worn Folk-Legacy LP. I could listen for hours to […]
We always have choice
Somedays, it’s easy for me to feel powerless as Covid ramps up again and Afghanistan collapses. I need reminders that I always […]
Finding beauty when you’re feeling beastly
“We respond with joy to the call of beauty because in an instant it can awaken under the layers of the […]
Finding our way across choppy seas
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work” Wendell Berry I […]
Does age matter?
I remember an experiment from a class in business school. The prof asked us to line up by age. Then he asked: “Does […]
Fail often/fail better
I love the words of Samuel Beckett, inspirational even as they came from a dark piece of his prose: “Ever tried. Ever […]
To see the familiar with new eyes
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower William Blake “Auguries of Innocence” For […]
Heat wave
As the heat inched past 100 Our Northwest hubris We don’t need air conditioning, We can sit under trees Melted away. I couldn’t […]
MMMMMMMMM your way to calm
Given the stresses of daily life combined with growing uncertainty about our global future, I’ve been collecting remedies and techniques to use […]
The past is never past
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner Faulkner’s words were written to describe how the history […]
Balance continuity and change
In these times of turbulence and rapid change, when areas like the environment, voting rights, and immigration demand immediate, constructive action, why […]
A gem of joy in the news
Sometimes in the murky waters called the news, one finds a gem. I did last week when I read a story announcing […]
Anxious in America
Hopefully, the pandemic is receding and so, too, is the spike in national (and global) anxiety it provoked. I suspect, though, that […]
How to say no, nicely
For some of us, the pandemic brought a guilty pleasure. We were released from the burden of having to say no […]
Create the tension for change
When we work in a problem-solving mode, we remain limited. Our energy stays focused on the problem, instead of what we want. […]
To gain perspective, turn upside down
The tragedy of George Floyd invited many of us to wake up, to see the world as it is and not what […]
Seven keys to deep learning from The Octopus Teacher
I finally watched My Octopus Teacher, the much-celebrated Netflix documentary that chronicles the year film-maker Craig Foster spent swimming with a wild, […]
Find rhythm in a pause
I’ve been loving my spring walks athrough our woodlands. They help me to pause when I’m wound up or feel […]
Playing as an ensemble
April is an exciting month for me as I get ready to watch the great performances that will be taking place over […]
Want more of Einstein’s brainpower?
Colossal intelligence that he was, Albert Einstein had a relatively small brain. It measured 1230 grams, on the smaller end of average. […]
Can we celebrate now?
Are you celebrating? It may be long overdue. Life without celebration is like hiking across a snowfield during a whiteout when the […]
Is it time to start returning?
It’s time to start talking about APAD: Anticipatory Post-pandemic Apprehension Disorder. Unless it’s just my issue. I was so excited to have […]
How to use anger to fuel your creativity
With a new year, new, very different, President and Vice President, vaccines rolling out, and spring on its way, I thought we’d be done […]
Zoom fatigue? It’s real and what to do
Many of us have been experiencing a chronic condition since early into the pandemic: Zoom fatigue. It’s growing worse. Last November, Psychiatric […]
Confessions of a judge-aholic.
The poet Rumi once wrote: “Out beyond right and wrong, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” How I’d love to […]
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a fiercer love
I’ve been learning about a new face of love reading Valerie Kaur’s See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. […]
Let’s sing a new revolution
In Estonia, people sing. An Estonian woman I heard speak in an online singing class talked about Laulupidu, Estonia’s choral song festival. […]
If you need more time
Even though last week I wrote about seeding a new beginning, I’ve had trouble starting up again. The air feels fresher, yet […]
Seeding a new beginning
“Stories are like seeds. It pays to know what you want to harvest from your garden so you can plant the right […]
Why not let life be complex?
This US Presidential Inauguration Day, a group of riders on white horses wearing white coats will ride into Washington, D.C. to assume […]