“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi The first winter, I learned to lie cheerfully. “How are you settling in?” someone would ask, and I would smile and say, “Really well, thank you.” That was the most fluent English I spoke all day. I had left a warm, loud, crowded life and landed in a…
“Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean me first; it means me too.” ~L.R. Knost We live in a society that celebrates pushing through; burnout is often worn as a badge of honor, and many job descriptions state bluntly, “Must be able to perform well under pressure and thrive in a fast-paced environment.” I’m very well aware that self-care isn’t a…
“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” ~Michelle Rosenthal” Today I am sitting in my favorite café in Venice Mall. I got my favorite seat, the one near the water. I have spent countless hours here. I have cried here. Journaled here. Drawn here. Consoled myself here. There was a time when…
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ~Mark Twain It started with a clogged kitchen drain. Or maybe the drain was where everything else I’d been carrying finally surfaced. Regardless, the water wasn’t moving. It was so bad that some of it backed up in the bathroom sink. Baking soda and vinegar didn’t…
“To tie your worth to achievements is a recipe for suffering.” ~Brad Bizjack Children don’t just learn mathematics, science, and languages in school. They also learn what success feels like, what failure means, who they believe they are, and sometimes, whether they think they belong. When I was in primary school, my school introduced academic streaming. If there were…
A few months ago, I found myself wondering whether I had made a mistake. It is not a question I expected to be asking in my seventies. Like many people my age, I sometimes think about retirement, savings, and financial security. I look around and see friends who spent decades building stable careers and preparing for the future. Some…
“Waiting is not mere empty hoping. It has the inner certainty of reaching the goal.” ~I Ching Waiting has a bad rap in modern Western society. It’s not surprising that I had to look to an ancient Chinese text (the I Ching) in order to find a suitable quote to begin this article. We don’t like to wait! It’s…
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” ~Maya Angelou The weekend started like any other family visit. Our family was in town, and it began with real excitement. Kids running everywhere, chocolate chip muffins in the oven, homemade ice cream for our guests, the ordinary, happy chaos of everyone existing in the same space….
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~Viktor Frankl I smiled when the doctor told me I had a disease I would carry for the rest of my life. He was calling with my biopsy results, and the word he used was “Crohn’s.” I had no idea what it meant….
“If you don’t give your mind and body a break, you’ll break. Stop pushing yourself through pain and exhaustion and take care of your needs.” ~Lori Deschene In November of 2021, my autoimmune issues flared up. My doctor and I are still unsure which of my conditions—rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia—was the culprit, or if they were acting in cahoots,…
