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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

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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

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Launching Anew

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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,

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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

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Celebrating you

In this season of gifts and celebrations, wise men and pilgrimages, the dark of night, and the light of new beginnings, I

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