Wisdom

Sometimes it’s about Validation

Community is important. We live interconnected lives but like the villages of old, through circumstances of family, career, education, or just plain happenstance, we are thrust into association with people.  Masses and masses of them and rarely of our choosing.  Now sometimes we make great friends and networks from this and create community through it.…Details

The Stories In Our Heads

Group dynamics are fascinating to me.  Just a few days ago I was having a conversation about various friends and their experiences with organized religion.  I know a few who entered what could be considered a monastic life, moving into a community geared towards a specific kind of spirituality, removing themselves from a mainstream lifestyle, living with rules and practices geared to elevate the spirit and remove them from the negative influences of normal life.…Details

Road Blocks

Road blocks aren’t just something that makes traffic jams and makes us wonder about the wisdom of our city planners and how our tax dollars are being spent.  Road blocks happen in life as well and only some of them are external. …Details

Seeking Yourself Is an Act of Courage

The mind is an amazing thing.  We can work to ‘not know’ things about ourselves and achieve this in so many ways.  We can medicate ourselves through food, alcohol, recreational drugs, overwork, gaming, media intake, etc etc.  We can also ‘not know’ things about ourselves by ignoring them, judging them in others, or telling ourselves that that’s ‘just the way it is’. …Details

It’s All Perception

Continuing to enjoy Brene Brown.  From I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t) From page 111: Critical awareness also requires us to question this notion of blaming the victim. In particular, some pop psychologists preach that “There is no such thing as reality, just perception.”  Not only is this inaccurate, it’s dangerous. …Details

Passover

Thank you, Kathryn for creating a wonderful Passover Seder.  It was an amazing blend of sacred and contemporary, fulfilled all the requirements of an ordered dinner and brought so much laughter that my cheeks hurt at the end of the night. …Details

Social Grenades

I’m still digging Brene Brown and her work with Shame.  Here’s a good one from I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) Page 88: “I came up with the term shame screen after analyzing data from the first hundred interviews. …Details

Full Body Project

Leonard Nimoy is a photographer.  Who knew?  He has been since he was a young man and has exhibited worldwide. He has published two books of his work, the most recent of which is The Full Body Project.  I recommend it not only for its beauty and his respectful portrayal of women, but for the fact that he allowed his models to portray themselves.…Details

What Is Shame?

I really digging Brene Brown in I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging. Women often experience shame when they are entangled in a web of layered, conflicting and competing social-community expectations.…Details

Just One Thing

What’s the one thing that you’ve always wanted to do or be and that you’ve never achieved?  There’s always something.  Something your heart desires and that would bring you great joy but, for whatever reason, you have never done/had/been.  So here’s a challenge: Today find some way to do say or be that one thing.…Details