As soon as one of my dear friends posts on Facebook about her “sad and complicated life,” I think, “She must be doing what she and I discuss a lot: telling herself stories.” How often do we do that? And how often are those stories negative about ourselves? About what we do wrong and how […]

We did it, my friend Sarah and I. She started it. I never would have. Too embarrassed. Not good enough. I should be better than I am, more advanced after all these years of studying French. On our walk on Portland’s wide-open panoramic Eastern Prom, big enough for all the mistakes we would make, spacious […]

A friend recently asked me, “Have you ever wanted something that was impossible?” She didn’t ask me to name that something. Phew! Who wants to reveal their deepest longings, fantasies, or maybe that shiny thing tinged with the teeniest bit of greed? “Yes, of course,” I answered simply. “It’s about loss, right?” She smiled and […]

It started when our grandson played a junior golf tournament near us and my husband and I followed him for nine holes. He’d hit a long straight drive, turn to us with a smile and a thumbs up, which we’d return. The next hole he’d hit an errant drive and say something like, “My drive […]

On a recent 90-degree day with over 60% humidity, I remembered my childhood snow globe. Do you remember the magic of the tiny bits of reflective glitter in the water-filled glass? When turned upside down or shaken, the particles fell like a snowstorm. I gazed at it, fascinated by the whiteout after a few jiggles. […]

People create – whether works of art, simple meals or woodpiles chopped and stacked. In these special places that also provide comfort, we receive intuitive messages and birth our imagination. Writers sit at desks to write. Woodworkers bustle around their shops. Crafters lean over their workbenches. Composers delight at their pianos. We enter our meaning-making […]

Have you heard the story of the man who glanced at a coiled rope, assumed it was a snake and jumped back in a panic? Or the tale of a monk who lived for decades in a cave and, for years, created a picture of a floor-to-ceiling tiger with bold stripes and wiry whiskers on […]