This post first ran April 6, 2019 Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota poet, writer, and artist. In an On Being interview with Long Soldier, she said, “Writing has shown me what happens with patience.” Oh wow, I thought. That’s an understatement! I don’t consider myself a terribly patient person. I’m an activator, someone...
In the Mumford and Sons song, “Awake My Soul,” there’s a line that says, “Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” I just returned from a trip to visit my aunt. In her bathroom, she has a towel that reads, “Love, Family, Faith.” In those three things she has invested her entire life...
As we stepped outside the other day, I suggested my husband and I do a “color walk,” where you look for a specific color as you stroll along. He chose red, of course. It’s his favorite color. So, we started naming red things immediately: red front door, red car, red trim on house, red wagon....
A friend and I are going chapter by chapter through the book It’s Not Your Money by Tosha Silver. We had both read it before, but not one chapter a week as the author suggests. There’s a very important section in the book where the author talks about getting rid of clutter. Casting out the...
A couple of days ago, my instructor explained how we’d be doing things differently “because of Covid.” “Ah, ‘because of Covid’,” I said. “The crappiest words in the English language.” “Are they really, though?” another student asked. “I could think of worst things we could say.” She was right, of course. Words are just words...
Let me see if I can articulate this correctly: Feel into this phrase, “I don’t care anymore.” Did you experience tension or relief? Most of us associate this declaration with something “bad.” When someone says it, we immediately jump into nurturing mode. “Oh, you don’t mean that,” we say. We search for ways to cheer...
Since rewatching the broadcast of Come From Away—the Broadway musical now streaming on Apple TV— I’ve had the song “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” stuck in my head. We sang it often at mass when I was growing up, and I found it to be not only a beautiful melody, but wonderfully aspirational...
Not long ago, 14-year-old Russell Horning, a.k.a. “The Backpack Kid”, originated a dance called “The Floss.” It’s a catchy little move sequence in which your straightened arms swing back and forth across your body while your hips move in a quick pendulum motion. When the dance first got popular, I asked my daughter to teach...
A friend of mine was telling me she’d heard that creativity was one of the great casualties of the pandemic (my words, not hers). She noted how she’d stopped doing any of the creative things she’d previously loved to do, like quilting, and even now was struggling to find the energy to return to those...
A friend loaned me the DVD, Evolve Your Brain: the Science of Changing Your Mind, by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I’m aware of Dr. Joe and have read one of his books, so I knew to expect some interesting science around how our minds and emotions create our lives, but about halfway through the lecture, he...