“Connection is why we are here. It gives meaning and purpose to our lives.” Brene Brown is a “researcher-storyteller” that studies human connection. She collects stories as her data. The goal of science is to understand, control, and predict the world. Science loves certainty. As a child, I loved the natural sciences. I loved exploring the …Read More
Category: Spirit
Too Small For You
“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your alonenessto learnanything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”—David Whyte, excerpt from “Sweet Darkness” In an earlier career as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands, David Whyte tells us that he returned to poetry because the scientific language …Read More
Let Your Light Shine
OUR DEEPEST FEAR —by Marianne Williamson Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? …Read More
Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth
“People act strange around death. There are those who talk about everything but the person who died. Those who talk about only the person who died. Those who try to cheer you up. And those who can’t help but make you cry. And then there are those who say nothing at all because they don’t …Read More
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
There are doctors, medicines, and even machines that have saved lives. And then there are the poets, like Mary Oliver, who have saved souls. She is so deeply present in her poetry that she invites us into presence with her. Growing up in a difficult home, nature became her mother, her teacher, and her mentor. …Read More
Healing with Horses
I am still struck today with just how generous he was to share something he loved with a stranger. Gary owned a small family farm with horses and cattle. While his profession took him to the hospital as a physical therapist where I had met him, this was another side of him — love of the …Read More
Satyagraha – Odetta sings Ghandi’s Truth Force
Satyagraha (origin: Sanksrit) literally means “holding onto Truth” or “Truth Force”. Mahatma Ghandi coined and developed the term for his political movement of passive non-violent resistance to British Imperialism and his support for Indian independence. For Ghandi, satyagraha is much more than “non-violence.” Ghandi also referred to it as “love-force” and “soul-force”, encompassing a daily way of …Read More
Animal Medicine – Native American Healing
Today, a pair of rabbits hopped about in my backyard, and then disappeared in the brush. A few minutes later, small deer ran across the lawn. A few minutes more, that must be mama deer lagging behind. “It’s Spring!” I said out loud to myself as I continued to stare out the window. Living in …Read More
Poem: If Only to Receive
A friend and poet, Daniel Cryns, shares these words, “If only to receive…” (Poem is posted below with permission.) “If Only to Receive…” by Daniel Cryns If only to receive the song of today in reverence, delight… No need to own it, no need to share it. To fully take in that which will never …Read More
Poem: We Have Come to Be Danced
“The fastest, cleanest, most joyful way to break out of your own box is by dancing. I’m not talking about doing the stand-and-sway. I’m talking about dancing so deep, so hard, so full of the beat that you are nothing but the dance and the beat and the sweat and the heat.”—Gabrielle Roth Ecstatic dance …Read More