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Recently upon waking after an incredible, self-administered Reiki session, I got onto the treadmill to walk into my day. As always, I wanted to select some reading material. I was drawn to a journaling book, one of many on my “personal development” book shelf. When I opened the book to the table of contents, my eye was drawn to a chapter which focused on journaling through the five stages of grief. I went straight to it. Read more »
A few years ago I picked up a little book called Faith by Sharon Salzberg, a Buddhist meditation teacher and now best-selling author. I don’t remember exactly why this book caught my attention. Perhaps I was intrigued by the first page where it said that faith was not synonymous with religion, yet I’d always thought it was. I remember enjoying this book tremendously the first time I’d read it, but I couldn’t remember why. I felt it was time to read it again and here’s what I discovered. Read more »
“We all fall down in life…the secret to happiness is how fast you can get back up.” This Facebook post from author and spiritual speaker, Denise Linn, recently caught my attention. She shared that she had been feeling a bit sad and depressed, but she also realized that she could pick herself up more easily because of her spiritual tools. Read more »
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” (From Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day,” New and Selected Poems) September is upon us. Before you know it, Halloween will be here, followed closely by Thanksgiving and then, yes, Christmas! Where has 2014 gone? And what have we done in 2014 to further our self awareness and personal development? Have we touched upon our soul, our very essence? Have we plumbed it; explored it? If the answer is yes, superb. Bravo to you! If we have not, perhaps we need to lay aside the daily, weekly, monthly, burdens, i.e., our day jobs, that divert our attention from those tasks that nourish our souls and are the essence of each of us, long enough to do so. Read more »
Makeover summer! That’s what it’s felt like. I had the exterior of my house repainted, a new front fence, and a complete redesign of my front yard landscaping. It has taken weeks of planning and many days of workers doing their thing. All went smoothly barring a few leaky faucets. Whew! Read more »
We have heard it said, and maybe said it ourselves, that God (Great Spirit, Life, or such other moniker based on your belief system) never gives us more than we can handle. While I know personally I have doubted and even questioned this concept, the month of June has shown me that my doubt and second-guessing are unwarranted. Indeed, I am now convinced that God does not give us more than we can handle in our lives at any one time. Read more »
The school year has ended. I have completed my 25th year of teaching and summer has begun. Believe it or not, while teachers are ecstatic about the school year ending and having some time off, there is a week or two of disequilibrium as they adjust to a slower pace. (Although it must be added that since summer is an unpaid “vacation,” some must continue a fast clip into a summer job.) Once you arise out of your stupor and realize you are free for a few weeks, you find yourself trying to accomplish every task you’ve put off for the last 10 months so that you can go back to work in August having accomplished something. At least that was always my way of doing things. But this summer is different! This is my endless summer because I won’t be returning to teaching in August. After 25 years, I have retired. Read more »
“It doesn’t feed my soul,” I remember thinking. I was in my fifties at the time, and I was referring to my job. I was quite surprised. It didn’t even sound like something I would say, but I knew what it meant. There was a void, an emptiness that needed filling. At that same time, I would often find myself saying, “When I retire I’m going to…” and I’d finish the sentence with something I’d always wanted to do, like work with animals or something creative with art or writing. I was feeling the need to dig deeper into who I was and to reconnect with the person I once had been. I felt like I’d Iost pieces of myself somewhere along life’s path, and the need to be revitalized was now hitting a crucial tipping point. Read more »
I don’t know about you, but I’m a big planner. Planning is good. Without it we might not move forward or pay our bills or cook dinner or accomplish what we need to at work or in life. I must have a little bit of drifter in me too, however, because this is not the article I sat down to write this week. I had another one all planned out with notes and everything, but I let myself drift in another direction. Read more »
Remember back to your childhood? Close your eyes and see the fluttering of a beautiful monarch butterfly, gracefully ascending and descending from flower to flower. Harken back to that early science class when you learned about the caterpillar, its journey into the chrysalis and the remarkable metamorphosis from a creepy crawly critter to a graceful winged acrobat. Caterpillars are not the only creatures that transform themselves. We as humans also undergo metamorphoses, many of them actually over the course of our lives. Read more »
