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From Dread to Delight: A Lesson in Attitude Adjustment
Last weekend, I had the “opportunity” to do something I was looking forward to about as much as a tooth extraction: standing

Sharing a Fine Whine
Whining often gets a bad rap. Culturally, it conjures images of someone stuck in the past, replaying the same story to anyone

Finding the Stillpoint
“What’s the best way to move cattle fast?” “Slowly.” — Cowboy wisdom In our fast-paced world, moving slowly isn’t easy. Sometimes I

Talent or Practice? Why I Choose to Keep Drawing
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been drawing every day—sometimes for five minutes, sometimes fifty. It started as a discipline,

Launching Anew
I’ve just introduced my Engaging Presence newsletter to Substack where it is called Embracing the Muse. The new title reflects the

Time to Move
Next week, I plan (okay—hope) to move this newsletter blog to Substack. It should be simple… but let’s be honest. We’re talking

Choosing What You Choose
Too many choices? Too little time? “First world problem,” you might say — and often, I agree. Having choices is a privilege.

Beyond Chocolate Bunnies
Spring has sprung in all its spectacularness. The cherry tree has finished weeping its delicate pink blossoms, and now the crabapple takes

Anchoring to steady your life
I find myself teetering on the edge of overwhelm a lot these days, and I suspect I’m not alone. It feels

Wither art in times of turmoil
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need

How to Feel In Control (Even When the World Isn’t)
The Buddha suggested that our need for control leads to suffering. But who, among us less enlightened beings, doesn’t want to feel

Loving the flowers (a pause)
The News: Everything is Bad The Poet: Okay, and what if we still fall in love with the moon and learn something

America 2025: Finding Your Role in the Performance of Our Lifetime
Given the appalling daily news from Washington, D.C., I’ve heard many ask, “What can I do?” and “What’s my role in turning

The “Dunno” Card: Your permission to not know
Back in my school days, I was rewarded for knowing things. And the world, as I understood it then, was knowable—even if

In Case of Catastrophe—Calm
When the news bombards us with calamity after calamity, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, our minds caught in a never-ending spin

Be Subversive: SMILE (and then act)
Given the nightmarish news, you may wonder why I suggest smiling—when the appropriate emotional response might be RAGE. I don’t like for one

Balance Out Don’t Tune Out
I did that thing I tell myself not to do: I read an email headline too early in the morning. It

Health Alert: Inauguration Despair Virus is Surging
No one needs reminding that it’s been a tough month: fires, bombings, and an inauguration many of us never thought possible. It’s

Finding Joy in Baby Gratitudes
As you might know, I’m a big proponent of small steps—even micro ones—that keep us moving toward what matters most. At this

The Future Needs Us to Go Deeper
Einstein once observed that our problems can’t be solved at the same level of thinking that created them. My take? To address

The Art of Unknowing
When I was growing up, school rewarded us for what we knew. We were tested on facts and praised for correct answers.
If you need a hug—or some light today
This isn’t the blog I intended to write. I’ll skip any analysis of the world or elections and instead offer you my

Because it’s complicated
High-end AI systems can now process a gigabyte (billion bits) of data per second. In contrast, human attention spans have declined to

We’re in this together
Fear and worry can constrict us, prompting us to hold our energy protectively when we sense danger. These feelings can separate us,
Celebrating The Muse—A One Year Anniversary
Candles and Balloons—Celebrating One Year of Meeting the Muse After Midlife As I reflect on the one-year anniversary of publishing Meeting the
Seven Steps for Surviving Election Season
If you’re prone to anxiety, the pre-election period can feel like an endless source of heart-thumping drama. The state of the world

Expand Your Joy by Listing What You Love
Last week, I mounted my horse for the first time in six weeks. For most equestrians, mounting is second nature—we forget about

The Power of Kindness (First lessons from recovery)
I’m five weeks into my recovery from hip replacement surgery, and things are going well. By well, I also mean SLOWLY. It

Hip, Hip, Hooray
The last couple of weeks have brought much to celebrate: An amazing change in the race for the US Presidential Elections. A

Letting Curiosity Guide Us When Things Fall Apart
Last week I lost my neighbor and riding coach, a friend I’d known for thirty years. Hearing the news of her death

Time to shout “no” to misogyny
I wish it were easy to just say no to a force that has been weighing us down for centuries—affecting our bodies

Got Anxiety? If not, why not? (with lessons from Inside Out 2)
One great takeaway from Inside Out 2, Pixar’s summer blockbuster, is that we are all entitled to a full range of emotions—from

Stumbling in the land of too-much-ness
While we’ve kept our national attention on Covid-19 and its variants, another pandemic has slipped into town: too-much-ness. You can see it

What’s growing now (a pause)
What’s growing in your garden? Not just in your outside garden, which I hope is flourishing, but in your inner garden as

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

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

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

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
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

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

Playing with Paradox
To be able to hold a paradox requires holding the tension between opposites—seemingly contradictory forces. When the world appears too chaotic it’s tempting to want to

The Glory of New Growth (A Pause)
I find it a miracle that despite what is happening in the world (and thanks for the well wishes about the loss

When who we are is how we are supposed to be
Last week I received the latest episode in my ongoing series, “Lessons in Loss and Grief.” A close, dear friend died after

What’s Age Got to Do with It? (Thank you, Tina Turner)
In 1984, Tina Turner celebrated one of the biggest comebacks in music history. She hit the stage at 44 with her “Private

When stuff doesn’t make sense
Sometimes, what I expect to make sense doesn’t. And what feels a little crazy might make most sense of all. As a

What to say (or not say) to a friend who is dying
Thanks for reading—it’s not easy to think about losing a friend, let alone what to say. I’m not thinking today about the

Small Acts Can Light the World
All around us tiny acts of kindness are happening daily. You have done some of them. Big or small, they bring light

All You Need is Love (but skip the roses)
I’m writing this on the National Day of Loving, aka Show-People-You-Love-Them-By-Spending-Money-on-Them Day, aka Valentine’s Day. How did we get started with this

Eight Books Someone Should Write
The uber-creative illustrator and drawing coach, Wendy MacNaughton, issued a challenge this week to the folks following her on Substack: come up with imaginary

And now, a brief view from the land of the ordinary
The world’s been a bit gloomy, so I thought we needed a change. A little visit to main street, real life, the

Changing at the Speed of Slow
Question to a rancher: What’s the fastest way to move cattle? Rancher: Slowly On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, I thought about

Set Up Your Day With Morning Rituals and Routines
In these tumultuous times, as I wrote about last week, morning rituals and routines set the direction for our days. They offer a base

Fasten your seat belt—it’s 2024!
“Live with skillful nonchalance and ceaseless concern.”~ Prajnaparamita Sutra ~ Fasten your seat belt, it’s 2024 and we’re in for a wild

Coping with (collective) grief during the holidays
The holidays can be challenging when we’re feeling grief, especially after personal losses—even those from long ago. This year many of us

The exquisitely beautiful and difficult
“To me, this is so much of life: holding the really beautiful things and the profoundly hard things in the same palm.”

The Gift of Ordinary Kindness
When readers tell me that they are enjoying my book, it makes my heart sing. If it inspires them to expand their

Blessing the glad and the sad
Thanksgiving in the US is almost here, the day we sit around the table, hopefully with family and friends, and share with

Eight ways to help your brain chill (and not be a boiled frog)
Peter Senge taught me the lesson of the boiled frog in his 1990 book, The Fifth Discipline. He described how, if you

Completion challenge: Surviving and thriving at harvest time
I always thought harvesting was the fun part of the growing cycle. I still do; I just didn’t realize that it could

Do you need a “mistake pass”?
A vocal coach in Australia described her method of helping the participants in her classes sing more freely: she gives them each

When clouds get in the way
Does it ever happen to you that—when things are going great—blue sky and fresh breezes—some small thing derails you and lets a

What’s in your manifesto? (Is it time to share what you believe?)
These days, a lot of people are so busy saying what they’re against that we never hear what they’re for. Throughout history,

Growing high/growing low
Most trees and plants grow by reaching upward toward the light while sinking roots into the darkness of the earth. We grow as

Storying a more meaningful life (and a tribute to Juliet Bruce)
Stories teach. Stories heal. Stories transform. Working with stories, both ours and others, can help us find meaning and live a more

The Courage to Be Mediocre
Does the idea of being mediocre stop you from trying to do the creative thing you’ve always wanted to do? If so,

Overwhelmed? It’s OK to “Cry Uncle!”
I had tea this week with a close friend, one of the most kind, competent, and generous people I know. Also one

Surviving Mile 19
“Hitting the wall” is the term runners use to describe the moment when the bottom seems to fall out of their stamina,

When crazy is sane (or a dog’s life)
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the craziest things we do turn out to be the most sane? Acquiring an animal can

Enjoying the dog days of summer (a pause)
The dog days of summer are here, but as our temperatures in the Northwest head toward 90 (remember, few of us have

How to Celebrate a Birthday with 72 Delights
Birthdays are a funny thing. When I was six, a birthday expanded my world. It meant more adventures, a later bedtime, and an allowance. But

Beyond Barbie (What would you say in your speech?)
When I was eight, the girls in my neighborhood loved playing with dolls. I didn’t. I preferred to explore the Connecticut woods

Let these quotes about the creative process inspire yours
While I know that reading about creativity isn’t the same as making something (and reading about writing isn’t the same as writing),

The one tool you need most when you want to create
We’re all creative—and can express our creative spark in endless ways. Yet when it comes to expressing ourselves we’re often handicapped by

When things feel out of control—try this
Growth. Time. Change and the idea of flow in nature. When I make a work I often take it to the edge

Freedom’s Not Just Another Word
On the Fourth of July in the United States we celebrate freedom. That is if anyone stops to think about it. Our

To bless the cyber space between us
What if you had a friend with whom you spent a sizeable portion of your life, yet you treated the relationship like

Here Comes the Sun (a solstice pause)
On the Summer Solstice, the longest day in the year, as the sun reached its highest point in the sky, I took

The Gift of the Ordinary
Grief knocked again—or, more accurately, knocked me off my feet and left me wailing. You’d think after writing about grief, I’d know

Are you “too sensitive?”
Did anyone ever tell you, “You’re being too sensitive” when you were growing up? Maybe they wanted to help you by offering

Nine Lessons from Grief’s Playbook
First off, thanks to everyone who sent words of condolence and compassion for my sister’s death—which I shared last week. I loved

Wordless
Words are beautiful but sometimes need to waitLest they be out of place.The world must be experienced before it can be described. I tread

Letting the tulips sing
Can flowers sing? No way to prove this but recently they sang to me. Finding new colors I recently returned from visiting


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you feeling exhausted?
A second pandemic is sweeping the nation. I don’t know how contagious it is, but I know it’s spreading. Exhaustion. You recognize

Do you know these (mostly) new words?
Words create worlds. Words in turn have lives of their own. I used to think that the words in the dictionary had
Is It Time to Dare More Greatly?
Dr. Martin Luther King dared to believe. His words still offer truths that are bold and aspirational to guide us in political times that
Dreaming Big: Daring to want what you want
A friend of mine recently confided that she hasn’t been able to do the artistic work that fills her spirit because of
Why Positive Thinking Can Have Negative Results (and what to do about it)
In last week’s post I wrote: “Wishful thinking actually decreases our possibility of meaningful action,” as I explored why dedicating ourselves to what
A simple tool for managing complexity
I’m not a to-do list obsessive kind of gal. So you wouldn’t think I’d get excited by a book called The Checklist Manifesto. I’ve become a believer in his main premise: In a complex world, the simple checklist can be
Finding the bigger story
Are you feeling tired of hearing all the government-bashing by the punditry? Isn’t it time to create some bigger more empowering stories about the institutions and causes we care about?
The secret reason you need to dance (or get moving!) Hint: it’s not fitness…
I’m a dancer. Who stopped dancing. But now I’ve a new reason to move – and it’s not about fitness. Do you
Coping with three flavors of fear – with help from Tara Mohr
Not all fears are created equally. With help from author Tara Mohr, I’ve identified three different kinds. When we’re on the verge of a big project, it’s good to know whether to move despite the fear and let it go,
How to change your pose to change your life
Can body language, and specifically your posture influence how you think, how you feel, and how you are perceived in the world? Dr. Amy Cuddy thinks so – and presents her findings in her popular TED talk. I do too,
How to give advice people want to hear
Ever wish that you could give people a piece of your mind and have them wanting more? Or, give feedback that someone really used because it was both tough and compassionate? The best model I’ve found recently for balancing straight
Celebrating you
In this season of gifts and celebrations, wise men and pilgrimages, the dark of night, and the light of new beginnings, I