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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 an extraordinary help (and will save lives.)
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 […]
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, except that those power poses all look like alpha males! I think so, and that’s why I wanted to hear Dr. Amy Cuddy’s TED talk “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” It’s one of most viewed TED talks ever. I could see why: Cuddy’s poised, personal, and packs a powerful take-away: the idea that you can become more self assured and be perceived as powerful by simply shifting your stance for a couple of minutes.
Celebrating you
In this season of gifts and celebrations, wise men and pilgrimages, the dark of night, and the light of new beginnings, I […]
