Movement Isn’t Progress

Just doing something doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere.  Just ask a hamster if you’re confused about that.  Going to the gym doesn’t mean you’ll lose weight, going to the mall doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the right thing, and meditating doesn’t mean that you’ll reach enlightenment or even find yourself.  (BTW…you’re sitting there meditating.  So you’re…

Unexpected Delights

One of the things which the busy-ness of the Christmas/Hanukkah season distracts us from is experiencing the unexpected delights that appear around us.  When we’re so busy getting to here, sending things there, getting things done so we can do other things, we tend to not even see what is around us other than as…

Story Time

One of the many traditions of Christmas season is the stories.  We read Christmas stories to our children, we watch Christmas cartoons, there are Christmas episodes of our favorite shows and there are Christmas movies galore.  I’m into irreverence so I enjoy Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as well as Scooby Doo Christmas specials of…

Encased In Armour

Martin Buber: Between Man and Man Each of us is encased in an armour whose task is to ward off signs.  Signs happen to us without respite, living means being addressed, we would need only to present ourselves and to perceive.  But the risk is too dangerous for us, the soundless thunderings seem to threaten…

What I Need

I talked with a client recently who had an aha! moment during the session where she recognized she was trying to make the lovely new man who had come into her life an answer to everything that wasn’t working in her life.  You know, the prince who comes to take the princess away so they…

What Do You Really Want?

Ever notice that spouses, significant others, and children will tell you all year long what they want ad naseum? But when it comes to Christmas time it’s like they all become Buddhist monks not attached to anything except the need to shrug and say “I don’t know.  Whatever you want to get me is fine…”…

Pick Your Battles

There is a lot of resignation and long-suffering and just going through the motions that happens at Christmas time.  Some people like conflict and to stir things up, most have enough to do making sure the holidays happen they way they are supposed to and when the day comes they just want to slide into…

Lighten Up

Ok, so things are ramping up. If it isn’t social obligations, his office Christmas party it’s her office Christmas party.  We’re coming up on holiday shipping deadlines, prepping for Christmas travel, desperation levels are rising in the shopping area, and the sounds of wrapping, decorating, and swearing are beginning to resound throughout the world.  With…

The Perfect Christmas

To my mind the only way in which a Christmas should be perfect is that everyone had a gloriously, deliciously good time full of laughter and joy and contentment…an possibly egg nog…or Mimosas…there could be mochas…  Ahem…where was I?  Oh yeah, perfect.  So one of the biggest killers of the Christmas spirit and spoiler of…