Author Archives: Musings

“There are no steps, just stepping stones.” Gabor Mate I have begun building my team–my intersecting, eclectic, multi-talented support team. These are the thinkers and philosophers and poets and friends and family who inspire me, teach me, guide me, open my heart, and help me hold my pain, and give me the strength to holdContinue reading “Stepping Stones…building my team”

“Imagine if our negative feelings, or at least lots of them, turned out to be illusions, and we could dispel them by just contemplating them from a particular vantage point.” -Robert Wright The term “toxic positivity” is everywhere. It seems we go from one phase of punching pillows with unresolved childhood angst to positive psychologyContinue reading “State of Mind”

“You are not broken, in need of fixing.Rather, you are deeply hurt, in need of care.” -Arielle Schwartz So many of us are hurting right now—whether from the lockdowns or illness or financial challenges or isolation or the presence of old traumas triggered the current state of our world. Let’s just be honest—it’s hard rightContinue reading “Care—of all kinds”

“Rather than changing or not having the thoughts and feelings that make up our experience, mindfulness is about changing our relationship to them.” -Judson Brewer My three children were quite young when we moved to San Francisco. They’d wake up early with endless amounts of energy and we’d head out in search of yet anotherContinue reading “Changing our Relationship”

“Life may seem ‘harder’ for you at times, and often you are close to overwhelm. But it’s harder still to repress your overwhelming gifts. Sensitive ones, bring some gentleness into this weary world! Shine on with courageous sensitivity! You are the light bearers!” From “To the Sensitive Ones”, by Jeff Foster Some days it’s hardContinue reading “The Sensitive Ones”

“Whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness.” Elie Wiesel As a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel witnessed far more than many of us will ever have to. And he transformed the lives of so many by inviting us all into the details of his heart and mind. One can not read Wiesel and not beContinue reading “Witness”

“Source of all Sustenance, sustain me. Nowadays, even living simply…demands too much.” -Rabbi Nachmann of Breslov “With time and distance self-mastery is more easily achieved.” -Epictetus I usually begin my daily journal writing by reading a quote or passage from a philosophical book or sometimes even a poem. This morning I read the 19th centuryContinue reading “Perspective”

“A good life is not a place at which you arrive, it is a lens through which you see and create your world.”― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life It’s all about perspective. No one would deny that some experiences are objectively more pleasant than others and some experiences are painful and traumatic. Yet, atContinue reading “A Good Life”

Spirituality is definitely transcendental, but to soar we must first be grounded.   When my kids were very little, a friend gave me a DVD about “stranger danger”. The approach was great; it broke adults into three categories (safe people, people you kind of know and complete strangers) and explained that ONLY the safe peopleContinue reading “Getting Grounded”

I need to re-learn this very simple truth every day!   Because…despite all the hours of meditation and books read and therapy and deep and life-changing conversations—we are human and we love and care and we easily get caught. We get caught by pain from our childhood, ideas of who we think we are supposedContinue reading “Intention-compassion-intention…”