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Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxApril 17, 20253 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxApril 2, 20254 min read
Change, Creating

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 27, 20253 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 20, 20255 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 27, 20253 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 20, 20253 min read
Change, Communicating

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 13, 20254 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 6, 20253 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 30, 20254 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 21, 20253 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 1, 20251 min read
Change

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. […]

sallyjfoxNovember 14, 20243 min read
Change, Uncategorized

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 […]

sallyjfoxNovember 7, 20242 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxNovember 1, 20242 min read
Change

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, […]

sallyjfoxOctober 25, 20243 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxOctober 10, 20244 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJuly 18, 20244 min read
Change, Musing

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 […]

sallyjfoxJune 6, 20242 min read
Change, Communicating

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 […]

sallyjfoxMay 9, 20243 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxApril 4, 20245 min read
Change, Flourishing

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 21, 20244 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 14, 20244 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 7, 20243 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 18, 20243 min read
Change, Flourishing

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 11, 20245 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 4, 20243 min read
Change, Uncategorized

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.” […]

sallyjfoxNovember 30, 20234 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxNovember 22, 20232 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxNovember 9, 20234 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxSeptember 28, 20235 min read
Change, Communicating

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 […]

sallyjfoxAugust 2, 20236 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJuly 13, 20236 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJuly 7, 20232 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJune 21, 20232 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJune 1, 20233 min read
Change, Musing

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 2, 20235 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 19, 20235 min read
Change, Communicating

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 12, 20234 min read
Change

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. […]

sallyjfoxSeptember 29, 20221 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMay 26, 20224 min read
Change

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. […]

sallyjfoxMay 19, 20223 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMay 12, 20223 min read
Change, Communicating

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. […]

sallyjfoxMarch 31, 20225 min read
Change

Nobody’s Going to Steal Our Joy

May the light prevail..

sallyjfoxMarch 24, 20223 min read
Change, Creating

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 10, 20222 min read
Change

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, […]

sallyjfoxMarch 3, 20225 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 17, 20225 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 10, 20224 min read
Change, Leading

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 […]

sallyjfoxOctober 7, 20215 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxSeptember 3, 20214 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxAugust 19, 20213 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJune 10, 20213 min read
Change

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. […]

sallyjfoxApril 29, 20215 min read
Change, Creating

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 […]

sallyjfoxApril 22, 20212 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxMarch 11, 20212 min read
Change

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. […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 11, 20214 min read
Change, Musing

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. […]

sallyjfoxFebruary 4, 20214 min read
Change

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 […]

sallyjfoxJanuary 21, 20213 min read
Change

Stay calm–and vigilant

Last Saturday, as elections results were finally announced. I celebrated. Relaxed. Cried. Then I looked up and knew, “It ain’t over yet.” […]

sallyjfoxNovember 12, 20203 min read
Change, Musing

Time for trust

We hoped it would be over. It’s not over. Maybe over was just a fantasy. The same forces that existed before the […]

sallyjfoxNovember 4, 20202 min read
Change

As we move through countdown

Are you on countdown this week? I keep ticking away days as if life is being divided into BE (before elections) and AE. […]

sallyjfoxOctober 28, 20201 min read
Change, Communicating

This revolution will require love

Is it OK to rage when we’re committed to practicing love? How do we love someone whose words and actions have lead […]

sallyjfoxOctober 8, 20203 min read
Change

What comes after a “staycation?”

When we were told to shelter-at-home at the beginning of the pandemic, I heard many friends talking about our new lives like […]

sallyjfoxAugust 13, 20201 min read
Change

Taking time on higher ground: John Lewis

In the Pacific Northwest, I love to go up into the mountains, the Cascades or the Olympics, where I can breathe cool, […]

sallyjfoxJuly 23, 20203 min read
Change

Resistance, resilience, and great women–a formula for hope

What if women, in this county and around the world, were to link arms across divides, including color, class, faith, sexual preference, […]

sallyjfoxJune 18, 20203 min read
Change

To change our systems, remember the body

A post on racism by Resmaa Menakem jumped out at me last week, so much so that I had to immediately read […]

sallyjfoxJune 11, 20205 min read
Change

A champion for justice who deserves to be known

    Last week was tough, for me, for many, filled with horrific images and the sadness that my country, the United […]

sallyjfoxJune 4, 20204 min read
Change, Creating

Finding the art of the “new normal”

First of all, it’s OK. Whatever you are feeling, or doing, it’s OK Life today is not normal. How can we hope […]

sallyjfoxApril 2, 20204 min read
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