Thirty years ago, a good friend invited me to join her extended family on their annual vacation. I’d attended the previous year and enjoyed myself, so I said yes again and flew out to meet everyone at the large house they’d rented for a week in one of the southeastern desert states. My friend, her parents, her two brothers and their spouses and children all arrived. We shouted greetings, hugged, and shared life updates.
Based on my experience the previous year, I had expectations. […]
Read MoreReal life occurs in the ongoing, sweat-soaked wrestling match between competing expectations. Do you know the feeling of really wanting to do something that someone else really wants you not to do? Or the situation where you say what you think and someone else tells you that’s not right? Or how about when one part of you has always done something this way, but another part of you wants to try doing it that way for a change? […]
Read MoreLet’s talk about the street corner of the heart where romance novels, daily life, world events, and grief set up shop. This is not the safe part of town. And yet here we can find what we need to renew life... if we dare.
My favorite romance novels break me in tandem with the main characters, show me what’s required to mend, and […]
Read MoreWhen people pay attention to you, what do you feel?
The chatter in the room pauses and all faces turn toward you. You react with… a raised chin and a smile? A gulp and a shrink? A “Pardon me” and a dust cloud as you make a beeline for the parking lot?
Whatever your reaction, the mechanisms around being seen were likely set in motion in […]
Read MoreHoming is a query to the self, a quest for comfort, an orientation toward alignment. It’s a useful feeling to tune in to, because it tells us how close or far we are to the resting place of our own truth. If someone urges me to be a way I’m really not, I feel it as a separation from the home of my true self […]
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