Have you ever browsed through buy nothing or free-cycle listings? The posts for items people are giving away for free are delightfully creative. Recently, a friend turned me on to them and the micro-stories were so intriguing. Here are some examples: Example #1: I can get rid of it now that the son-of-a-b!tch is gone. Example #2: I should have known that I’d never use … Continue reading Micro-Stories
Before Christmas, I visited a man with whom I had kept a weekly appointment for many years. Something inside me insisted that I should visit him. It could be one of the last times I would see him. I followed my inner voice and tried to call him, but the three numbers I had for him didn’t work. So I decided to show up at … Continue reading Accept Me Without Strife
Why does change get a bad rap? Our cells are dying and being replaced continuously. I think the skin on your pinky finger will completely slough off by the time you finish reading this post. Okay, I admit, I just made that metric up and this post isn’t THAT long. But generally speaking, we’re always changing, right? David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who teaches at Stanford, … Continue reading Ch-ch-changes
In August 2022, I dived into the heart. I did it by visiting the Anahata Ayahuasca Retreat Centre in Pisac, Sacred Valley of Peru. I was there for my own reasons, but once again, my journey had led me to someone who had been pushed into a corner by life and forced to make a change. During my trip to Peru ( July to October 2022), … Continue reading Dreaming into heart
The mom of one of my dearest friends passed away recently. I’ve known this family for almost 50 years, so she was like a second mom to me as well. Because her death was expected, I’d been dancing with grief for a couple of weeks before it actually happened. But even so, when I heard the news, a heaviness settled onto me. It was sadness … Continue reading The Therapeutic Effect of Stringing Some Words Together
The other day I clicked on a headline that was presented to me on the default home page for my browser. It was something like, “This is the best hike in Washington.” The article that it took me to was crap. So much for AI generated content. While it did name the trail, it gave its location as something south of the border with British … Continue reading The Internet Is Sometimes Desperate
Entering 2024 and looking at our common ground made me want to turn the whole New Year Resolution idea upside down.
Instead of wanting to change or hope for something else(whatever that is), I wanted to build a tower of Gratitude.
Continue reading The Tower Of Gratitude
Happy New Year to everyone at Wise and Shine. Wishing a good year for all our readers and our team. I hope that you have an abundance of health, wealth and happiness. As we begin a new year we reflect on the past year, making plans for the year ahead. We engage in the custom of making New Year Resolutions. I’ve done my bit too, … Continue reading Happy New Year – Sharing resolutions or not, that is the question!
A couple of weeks ago, I took my kids to a performance of The Nutcracker. As an indication of how steeped they are in the style of the Pacific Northwest, where getting dressed up means putting on your good fleece, I said something my eight-year-old daughter about wearing a dress. She practically choked out the words, “What do you mean, dress?” But I digress before … Continue reading A Note About Style and Newspapers
It may not compete with a Hallmark Christmas movie, but here are some pics from what has been a busy and fun holiday season so far. Best of Season I was visiting my daughter in Baltimore where we came across this very unique, and for some reason, compelling Nativity scene. I think it’s the coolest thing I’ve seen so far this holiday season. Favorite Christmas … Continue reading My Holiday Season Photo Journal
The Ramana Maharshi self-inquiry meditation inspired my “Who am I?” poem. I send massive gratitude to Ramana Maharshi for inspiring me to shape this poem. – Who am I? I was born in the city of Isfahan That’s the place my parents met They fell in love, danced the flame of love and drama kind of – Who am I? I am a daughter A Sister A … Continue reading Who am I?
A few weeks ago I posed the question: How can gratitude go wrong? Today I’ll suggest some answers of my own. I’ll also bring in some observations by author and psychotherapist Pete Walker. Shaming (Wrongfully) Accusations of ingratitude, or assertions that one ought to be grateful (and is not), can be used to shame someone abusively or inappropriately. Statements such as “You should (just) be … Continue reading Gratitude Shaming: Using the Idea of Gratitude to Harm
Updated Dec. 2023: Johann Hari’s book Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, is one of the very best things I’ve read in recent years. It’s one of those unusual gems you find, … Lost Connections fascinates in part because its central topic is several specific, environmental causes of depression, as well as corresponding remedies. Continue reading Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and Environmental Causes of Depression: Johann Hari’s Lost Connections
It’s that time of year again when people think about the new year and how they’d like to make changes in their lives going forward. We often refer to these proposed life modifications as “new year’s resolutions.” The other day, while stepping out of the shower, the idea hit me—insights come as flashes of insight and often at the strangest times—that the way we verbalize … Continue reading Repost: The Importance of Language When Making New Year’s Resolutions
With so much conflict in our world these days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. How do we shut out the noise and find that feeling of peace and tranquillity that feels so elusive? Understanding what’s behind all the turmoil is a good place to start. Continue reading Restoring Peace and Tranquility in Our Lives
This is a blog reading quickie- neither as exciting or satisfying as the other type of quickie you may have imagined- or maybe that was just me… Continue reading A Quickie…Not That Kind!
The other day I was editing a post I’d written about the dichotomy between gratitude and greed when a similar post popped up from the delightful and lovely blogger, Julia Preston. It wasn’t exactly the same – she was talking about a similar tension between love and fear. But it was close enough that I felt my internal defensiveness spark off instantly. Something like a … Continue reading Am I Copying? Getting Over Writing Defensiveness
In “What I’ve Learned about Life while Watching My Father Age,” a blog I wrote several weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d been reading On Death and Dying, a wonderfully insightful book written by Elisabeth Kϋbler-Ross. Throughout that tome, the author argues that doctors need to take a more “human” approach while treating dying patients. She also points out that the field of medicine stresses the … Continue reading Repost: The Real Secret to Being Happier and More Successful in the Workplace
My family’s musical project to help the unhoused both at home and in Hawaii. Continue reading Holiday Homelessness
This post will list and explain five key defining features of Complex PTSD, and point you toward the work of Pete Walker. This of course is not medical advice. Complex PTSD, by the way, is one example of what Johann Hari classes as a psychological cause of depression, within his division of depression causes into social-environmental, psychological, and biological. See my post Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and … Continue reading Pete Walker’s Five Key Features of Complex PTSD
