Blog Tour July 15, 2014 A heart-friend, Elaine Mansfield, invited me to join a blog tour begun by Jean Raffa. Since I am a first time tour participant, Elaine was kind enough to lead me through the process. She writes with a strong sense of place and is connected deeply to her home and her civic involvement. Elaine is a life-long student of philosophy mythology, Jungian psychology and the spiritual traditions from many cultures and she used her knowledge as a women’s health counselor for 25 years. However, after the death of her husband in 2008, her studies turned to healthy grieving and creating a new and fertile life for herself. The result is that she now facilitates hospice support groups for women who have lost partners. She also writes for the Hospicare and Palliative Care of Tompkins County newsletter and website and helps others find the spiritual core […] MORE
Greatfulness
Gratitude Today, I remember to be grateful. What a small thing that seems to be, but in the midst of the mind and media chatter of my days, it’s something I have to be mindful of. A practice of gratitude is so easy and super rewarding. As I think of the first thing I am grateful for, a waterfall of people, places and happenings flow into my heart. It becomes difficult to slow them down and savor them as they arrive. Knowing that everything I experience is a gift certainly adds to the volume! For those of you who noticed my absence, I have been studying to become a certified HeartMath trainer. Last week, I received my certificate and license and I am now authorized to work with groups—corporate, non-profit and people in my own practice and workshops. Because I believe so heartfully in the work of HeartMath, it has […] MORE
St. Valentine’s Day
Today is a day where we wish everyone love, with love usually being of the romantic kind. When I see this picture, it represents love to me. The tree that supports all kinds of love and life: family, friends, earth, the animals, birds and insects on the planet, and the planet herself. To have a day that represents love in all its guises is to ask us to remember what that feels like. Love is not many things, such as judgment, criticism, separation and superiority. Love is an open heart. A great exercise for this day is to think of someone or something that is not lovable, to your mind, and just open your heart to their heart. Lay judgment aside, and simply send love, wishing for that person or place to feel your love. Breathe into it. That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to get a response, […] MORE
Making Friends with Death
In September, I was asked to be a guest on a radio show hosted by the amazing Janet Conner. Both of us are great lovers of the work of John O’Donohue. She had decided that in the month of Samhain and Halloween (October) she would have a weekly guest who would talk about “Making Friends With Death.” I was to be the guest on the third week. At that time, I was in a joyful place anticipating the marriage of my son Christopher and his beloved Annie. Though I teach and coach people through grief, this was a step deeper then I had ever gone. Make FRIENDS with death? Really? And then I re-read John O’Donohue’s beautiful book “Anam Cara”, which translates as friend of the soul, where he proposes that death is born with us–though ignored in the celebratory surroundings of birth–and walks with us through our life. I began to […] MORE
Thoughts on Loving Ourselves
Today has been a strange synchronicity of blogs and notes and meditations that all turn to the same subject: loving ones self. In the first example, the writer agonized over the “evil little voice” that spoke to her of her imperfections and whether or not–not–anyone could possibly love her if they knew who she truly was. I am currently participating in a 21 day meditation with Deepak Chopra, and the subject was loving our self. Recently I wrote about the silencing, at least temporarily of our ego voice, and these three things came together in a great Aha! moment for me. I put this orchid photograph here because the orchid is not trying to be beautiful or desirable or right in its place because it just is. The difference? The orchid doesn’t have that ego voice in the head that tells it that it is not beautiful; not desirable; not right […] MORE
Small Griefs Add Up
Today I am having to deal with the grief that comes with a health challenge facing a loved one. In loving this person, I go to the compassionate place in my heart. But as Miller Williams talks about in his poem “Compassion”–we cannot know what goes on down where the blood meets the bone. This is a place we cannot go, no matter how we empathize with someone. We can’t be “in” the person, experiencing their focus, their reservoir of fear or sadness. We see the friend or loved one from our own perspective–not theirs. In this place, we can’t possibly know what choices they “should” make in their medical care, their communications with family, or any of a dozen other decisions they are making. And yet in this world of brain dominance, we are encouraged to prioritize, put things in perspective, stick with the left brain and don’t let the emotions […] MORE