Personal growth
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Back in the flow
“It can be tempting to prolong certain agonies. There’s the sympathy vote to start with, and if you haven’t felt well or you’ve been through a difficult period, you certainly can’t be expected to work full days or do your own laundry. But bouncing back as soon as you’re able means getting back into the stream of life. This is where the opportunity is.” ~Victoria Moran We all have different ways of coping. During periods of grief or illness, I tend to nurse my deepest wounds by myself. When I’m really down, I decline activities or events that usually spark joy for me — because I hate to dump my…
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Pebbles and mistakes
“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road.” ~Beatrice Wood, ceramic artist With the year rolling to a close, I’ve been thinking about everything I’d change, repair, or handle differently if I had a few “do over” opportunities. As usual, I see things more clearly in retrospect. Artists know that mistakes and missteps can serve as material for a work of art. And if you look at your own life as a work of art, you’ll see that a few of the things that seemed wrong or looked broken at the time eventually helped shape who you are. Maybe your mistakes taught you a…
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Pure generosity
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” ~John Wooden My mom was a stickler for good manners, and “reciprocate” was an active verb in her vocabulary. Whenever she was invited to someone’s home for dinner (and whenever she received a gift) she took care to return the favor. She was secretly disappointed when others didn’t follow the same rules of etiquette. While reciprocation is a lovely thing, it took me years to fully appreciate the concept of paying it forward. As today’s quote reminds us, the true spirit of generosity is giving a gift or doing a favor…
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Lifelong learning
“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas. This new book is newly opened, has just begun. Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!” ~ C. JoyBell C. For me, the best part of leading community workshops — in person again — is the privilege of spending time with fascinating people who want to keep growing. This fall, I’ve met many new friends who are ready to brush off the dust of the pandemic and reboot their lives. They’re ready for…
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How do we look?
“Ten years from now it won’t really matter what shoes you wore today, how your hair looked, or what brand of jeans you bought. What will matter is how you thought about yourself, how you lived, what you learned, and where you applied this knowledge.” ~Marc and Angel Chernoff, Marc & Angel Hack Life Everywhere I look, I see ads for products that promise to erase wrinkles, hide age spots, and make me look 10 years younger. Several of my girlfriends have found the courage to let their hair go gray — and they look beautiful — but I haven’t mustered the courage to do the same. It’s human nature to…
