The Gratitude Visit

Gratitude can make your life happier and more satisfying.  When we feel gratitude, we benefit from the pleasant memory of a positive event in our life.  Also, when we express our gratitude to others, we strengthen our relationship with them.  But sometimes our thank you is said so casually or quickly that it is nearly meaningless. – Martin Seligman I’m currently on fire about Flourish – A Visionary...

Acceptance is the key

Acceptance has been working me.  I’ve been out of commission from a gardening injury since the 3rd of July.  It was entirely self inflicted – the not-so-elegant combination of impulsive activity, bad body mechanics, and using the wrong tool for the job.  I was flat on my back and in severe pain for a week. Two years ago, also  on the 3rd of July, I took a very unglamorous tumble in the driveway and broke a bone in...

Look For The Signs

  In my top 10 list of favorite TEDTalks is Neil Pasricha’s the 3 A’s of Awesome. Neil started a blog to deal with heartache by savoring life’s simple pleasures.  He offers The 3 A’s to Leading a Life That’s Truly Awesome. 1.  Attitude—Life ain’t gonna go according to plan.  There are 2 two things you can do: stay stuck where you are or grieve, face the future and choose to move on. 2. Awareness— Embrace...

The Big Love Fund

I’m on retreat this week.  Enjoy this post from my friend Clare Campbell in Liverpool and join in on the Big Love Fund. …as if for an instant we had all learned how to give all our money away, watching it return without a shirt on its back… happy and singing, telling stories and introducing us to brilliant company, walking as if we could be dangerous again, dangerous in our generosity. –...

Not a Through Trail… Oh Yeah?

Catching up with a friend last week I heard a marvelous story about his son.  Joey finished college without knowing what he really wanted to do.  What he loved was surfing and he did a lot of that.  The parents were probably a little worried. Joey did some substitute teaching and helped out when needed at a Montessori School where his Dad worked. After he’d been around a while, one of the preschool assistants went...

Feel the Awkward and Do It Anyway

I’ve been blessed to work in what some would call exotic places around the world. When I travel so far from home (and the client is paying for my flight), it seems downright negligent not to extend the trip to explore a new place.  I love to travel and take great delight in learning about cultures different from my own. I have had some wonderful adventures and they all come with a good story.  Anyone who knows me...

Bill Cunningham NY

He’s 82 years old. Wears a functional, blue workman’s smock whenever he’s shooting: New York society galas, Paris Fashion Week, out and about on the streets of Manhattan. Lived in a small studio in Carnegie Hall – a single bed crammed between rows of filing cabinets overflowing with his life’s work. No kitchen, bathroom down the hall.  Rides his Schwin bicycle wherever he goes – his 29th Schwin. Without a...

The Poison of Comparison

What do you do when you see that someone else has written your book, is marketing a workshop you could teach in your sleep, is making art that you could do (maybe better), is humming along in a health groove that leaves them glowing and you seething with resentment? You know what I mean.  When someone else has the audacity to create art that is so close to what you’ve been dreaming about and actually put it out...

I Don’t Wanna

This week I didn’t feel like writing a blog post.  I was feeling kind of funky – not a lot of energy and a vague sense of empty after the completion of a run of juicy teaching and coaching that I was really fired up about.  It got me thinking about what to do when I don’t wanna do. One of the reasons I started this blog was I wanted a reason to write on a regular basis. Things have been hummin’ along until I...

A Tip From ‘Ol Blue Eyes

A surprising gift from the year of building birdhouses is this blog about creativity.  The title “Creativity For the Rest Of Us” came to me about three years ago – the summer I got a pair of binoculars and took up bird watching in my garden. (It’s amazing the insights that come in stillness.)  I didn’t understand what the title meant at first.  It stayed with me and I played around with it from time to...

Sharing the Seeds

Last week I had the privilege of witnessing a circle of elders in a soulful conversation discussing what they are learning about life as they come face to face with death.  There is no way to capture here the sacrament of that experience.  Because it touched my heart so deeply, any story I could tell feels inadequate to describe how their words landed in me. The very dear Mary Brady counseled me once not to “spend”...

Fire

          Fire What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would.   So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between, as much as to the wood.   When we are able to build open spaces in the same way we have learned to pile on the...

The Mystery of Fog

The Northern California coast where I live is famous for its fog.  Mark Twain’s line about “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco” is a popular quote used by locals.  When my Irish cousins come to visit, our first stop is often to buy a pair of long pants or a sweatshirt (for warmth not as souvenirs). In my quest to stop whining about things I have no control over, I chose to adopt a...

Bakesale Betty, Take 2

A tragic thing happened last fall.  Bakesale Betty decided to close on Sundays – the day that I frequent Oakland.  I am heartbroken – as is my mother who, now in her eighties, has developed both a dislike for cooking and a hearty appetite for Betty’s chicken potpies. As fortune would have it, I was in the neighborhood one Tuesday afternoon and managed to scoot in just before closing to snag some goodies for...

Teachings From the Banana Slug

On a recent outdoor adventure, I had the opportunity to spend some extended time up close and personal with a banana slug. Here’s what I learned. Move at your own pace and with the intuitive rhythm of nature.  Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly and never in a straight line, slugs get where they’re going with grace and ease.  With curiosity, they investigate everything that crosses their path.  They also stop to...