It has been a tough week (month, years) in the United States for many. A lot of anger, rage, sadness, and fear is coming to the surface. As humans our first reaction is normally to lash out when we are in pain. We want to find out who to blame.…
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Learning Unconditional Compassion
I have written a few times about my neighbor and the inconvenience of the smoke that comes from his house. Over the years I had made a few attempts to let them know there was a problem. My first attempt was to my neighbor’s girlfriend who had absolutely no interest…
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The Quest for Improvement
Today I was going to write about the story of the two monks and the river in order to show how most of the time our mental pain hurts us more than our physical pain. Then I realized I shared the monk story back in 2010. So . . .…
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The Delicate Dance
It has come to my awareness recently how much of my anger, sadness, resentment, and victimization all stem from focusing on my ego. It is important to differentiation what the ego is and is not. Lately every time I am triggered by something it is because I assume someone is…
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The Definition of Insanity
I saw a little boy learn a lesson the other day. At least I hope he learned from the experience. I was at the bank and the front of the bank was all glass. Even the doors were glass. The doors were not trimmed with metal; there were just two…
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Think Before Committing
Have you ever watched March of the Penguins or any other penguin documentary? Those silly little birds who can’t fly are pretty tough creatures. They migrate for hundreds of miles and then overcome amazing odds to feed their young. If I wanted to choose an image for persistence and perseverance,…
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Hope for the Future
Many of us are happy and joyful as we celebrate this Christmas Day. And many of us also have some sadness, some worry and some concern about the future. Years ago, I stopped watching the news and it released me from depression and hopelessness. Lately I have noticed that after…
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Ego and Surrender
Yoga and other mindfulness practices talk a lot about the ego and surrendering the ego. Thinking that the ego meant the self and being raised a Catholic where I heard many times it is better to serve and give to others, I interpreted surrendering the ego to mean that we…
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Service and Surrender
At different times of my life, I seem to have themes on which I am focusing. Two current themes I keep sensing right now are Service and Surrender. Service I grew up the daughter of two consummate volunteers. Under their tutelage, we were always helping others in small or large…
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Get on the Ball
At a lovely breakfast with Marlies, a dear friend of mine, she told me about an issue she had with a recent boss. The analogy she gave to describe the situation was brilliant, so I asked if I could share it will you all. Marlies was very frustrated with her…