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 Muse After Midlife, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned. Through podcasts, webinars, and conversations, I’ve been listening intently to what resonates with people, all while noticing how the idea of the Muse […]
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 it and focus on riding. But after hip surgery, swinging a leg over the saddle felt like a momentous, even risky, endeavor. I asked a friend to accompany me as I approached the […]
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 in the faces of your friends when they look overwhelmed by life. You feel it when you look at your schedule and 1) want to go back to bed or 2) feel your […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 of my friend), spring comes again. Each moment of new growth comes like a celebration—so time to go wander in the garden. In the meantime, I offer you the following to catch up […]
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 book covers. Drawing is not my forte, but her assignment put my imagination into high gear. I’ve come up with eight titles, I think someone should write. The last, I would even commission. […]
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 are also feeling another shade of grief that can compound the personal. It’s grief for the state of the world. Recently, I googled “How to survive collective grief during the holidays” and a […]
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 ten “mistake passes.” She knows that when students are concerned with singing “right,” their bodies will tense, their throats constrict, and what they hear coming out of their mouths will confirm their worst […]
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 host of storm clouds cover the sky? Even though you know that the sun, the light, is out there, those clouds are in no hurry to move on. The world feels suddenly dark, […]