There is a quote which I cannot recall exactly nor find the source. It goes something like this: “The people who show up are the right people. What happens is what is supposed to happen. And when it’s over, it’s over.” I have been submitting columns to the Portland Press Herald and The Forecaster since […]
Life Unwound
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Are you breathing deeply or just enough?
Do you wonder if what keeps you busy distracts you from what really matters? As in, “what I want is this, so I’ll do that to see if it helps.” Sometimes I think rearranging things I can control on the outside will shift my inside world. Let’s say I want to be a better writer […]
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Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly, The Forecaster
Life Unwound: Some memories are worth carrying with us
Do you have memories of childhood that still resonate today? I mean sweet ones. I know others surface, of course, but for now, I am wondering about how the good stuff of the past can inform our days today. Maybe they can brighten them or give us a hint how to live into our future. […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Let yourself be drawn by what you love
New Year’s resolutions. Ugh. Do you make up rules that you break within days, hours or minutes? “I will not eat sugar, all year, or maybe never, starting now.” It lasts until you crave, or hunger or question, “Who created this stupid rule?” It happens to everyone, I assume, at some point, that moment when […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Resolve to meditate even if you don’t want to
Christmas has passed, the portal of winter solstice behind us. Many of us ask, “now what?” Many of us make New Year’s resolutions. Many of my students and clients say, “In 2023, I will meditate. Never done it before but it’ll be good for me.” Or, “I tried it once and it didn’t work, but […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Making sense of home for the holidays
Holiday ads on TV showcase beautifully decorated homes and at least a subtle message that it’s good to be “home for the holidays.” Yet “home” does not equal safety for all of us, for those raised in chaos or trauma. How do we make sense of “home,” whatever it meant or now means to us? […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Gratitude lists grow habit of giving to others
A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I watched 8-year-old and 7-year-old sisters arrive late to breakfast because they had stayed in their beds to start their Christmas lists. On plain white sheets of paper, they scrawled “a new soccer ball, another stuffed animal, pink snow pants.” They showed the lists to their mom, who smiled and […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Opinions and preferences change, so can judgments
I’m thinking about autumn. I’m thinking about how the leaves paint and brighten the sky, how foliage rainbows reign everywhere, in the azure blue above, in the yellows and oranges, in the burning-bush reds, and how, as poet Mary Oliver wrote, “Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Seeking stillness within the whirlwind of activity
Many beautiful quotes invite us into stillness. T.S. Eliot offers this: “At the still point of the turning world. … at the still point, there the dance is, … Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.” What is the still point? And the dance? […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Connection cultivates creativity – and community
I sit here rereading one of my favorite books about writing, creativity and life: Nancy Coleman’s “Wide Open Writing: Embrace Your Creative Genius.” I read it often because Nancy is my friend, my teacher, a confidante, a wise and kind woman deep of soul and heart. As in so many things we do, I read […]