Awake my dear. Be kind to your sleeping heart. Take it out into the vast fields of light and let it breathe. -Hafiz It’s not officially autumn yet, but it sure seems like autumn as I look at my weather app, which displays a chilly 40 degrees! I love autumn because it is the last burst of color and sunshine before dark … Read More Fields of Light
Your personal boundaries protect the inner core of your identity and your right to choices. -Gerard Manley Hopkins I love my family. I love my friends. I love my community and I have respect and admiration for a great number of people whom I wouldn’t necessarily say I love. And at the same time, I am aware of and respect my boundaries and … Read More Live and let live…
Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it. -Maya Angelou It’s that time of year again…Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, when Jews all over the world fast and atone for their sins. They spend all day at Synagogue, asking God for forgiveness and go to their friends and loved ones, asking for their forgiveness. While … Read More Forgive Yourself
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. -Coco Chanel For those of us who avoid conflict like the plague, thinking for ourselves—out loud does not come easily. Why do we let others think for us? Why do we keep our thoughts to ourselves? I think it is because we have gotten too used to being a martyr. We’ve … Read More Speaking Truth
‘Who will teach me to write?’ a reader wanted to know. The page, the page, that eternal blankness, the blankness of eternity which you cover slowly, affirming time’s scrawl as a right and your daring as necessity. The page which you cover woodenly, ruining it, but asserting your freedom and power to act, acknowledging that you ruin everything you touch, but touching it nevertheless … Read More The Greatest Teacher
If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever…Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body. -Dan Millman We know so … Read More Knowing your Heart
With every act of self-care your authentic self gets stronger and the critical, fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side, I am on my side, each day I am more and more on my side. -Susan Weiss Berry Whose side are you on? All too often we put the needs of others … Read More Whose side are you on?
When we are in pain, we need to hear, “I hear you, I see you, I am sorry, what can I do, I am here for you” and not “Think of how worse it could be, be grateful for all the good things in your life, and even this too shall pass”. Because truth be told—none of that helps. The hidden message behind all … Read More True Compassion
Our obsession with our happiness has contributed to our unhappiness. -Tal Ben Shahar I don’t think I’m alone in admitting that I dislike suffering. While I might theoretically understand the benefits of suffering—the wisdom gained, the empathy learned from connecting to the collective human experience, and the deep and personal growth available on the other side, I’d be lying if I didn’t say … Read More Permission to be Human
I have come to believe in fact that Creativity and Fear are conjoined twins; they share all the same organs, and they cannot be separated without killing them both. I think fear gets a bad rap. The minute that creeping, dark and sticky feeling sinks into our gut or whispers in our ear, we usually shut down and we take it as … Read More The Creative Life
I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. -Carl Jung I admit it. I’m a binge-reader, and whether my current fascination is with Sylvia Plath or narcissism or the global economy, I read everything I can get a hold of. Lately, it’s been fear, which probably has something to do with my son (whom I am extremely … Read More Take it easy…
By a mad miracle I go intact Among the common rout Thronging sidewalk, street, And bickering shops: Nobody blinks a lid, gapes, Or cries that this raw flesh Reeks of the butcher’s cleaver… -Sylvia Plath, from “Street Song” My heart breaks as I read this. My heart breaks for Sylvia Plath, for me, for anyone who has ever exiled their pain. This … Read More Coming Out of Exile
