February 27, 2024
Have you ever woken up in the early, early morning hours, thinking, in your head, subsumed by something bothering you? Well, I did, on this not‑to‑be‑missed gorgeous morning, and while I told you in my last Blog you wouldn’t be hearing from me until March, this moment was so startling, so awesome, and it’s so timely to write to you about it, now. So, I am doing just that! The date was February 17, four weeks before my first posting was to be launched on Substack, what will be my new blog platform. I am excited about it as a…
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February 13, 2024
Breathe. Let the light that is all around you enter through your crown chakra. Let it penetrate your Being. Feel The warmth of the fire within you. Know that you are loved. Align all the energies. Let them converge as one in the center of your Being. Breathe. Create space in time. All will come to pass in its own time. Don’t try to rush things. Breathe. Create room in time. Those creative possibilities are beautiful, all in their own time. Give yourself the gift of room in time. Let this knowing in your body and your heart lead the…
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February 13, 2024
Four Sundays ago, I came to my office early, before my family was awake. Seeing my desk cluttered with papers, I passed right by the meditation corner where, every morning, I meditate, write poetry, or frequently read Mark Nepo’s Book of Awakening before tackling anything. I saw all the papers on the desk just begging to be sorted into notes that, if touched one by one and placed on a calendar, or a list, or committed to, would provide me with clear openings for action for my life. Since having gone to Indonesia for the month of November and having…
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January 30, 2024
The work of clearing the tangled recesses of your heart underneath the brambles and the thorns has revealed itself just In time. Accept it all, for it is exactly what you need. Wait patiently for the light to make its way through the dark. It will, you know. Embrace the obstacles; they will set you free! Accept them all as gifts, a vast surprise, make room for something new to come, and wise. If you want, you may go inside, untwist the brambles one by one, do the inner work that must be done. Let the moist leaves, the twigs,…
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January 30, 2024
Sometimes we get what we want, and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes, I like to look at it like this: no matter what life serves us, it is always what we need. Eckart Tolle, one of my favorite teachers/authors, puts it like this: “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” When last week started, I had many plans. I had a humongous list of what was to be done and to be…
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January 16, 2024
While many people are talking about making New Year’s resolutions these days, I want to want to approach that conversation from a deeper perspective. While I don’t know about you, for me this is a time to stop, and to re‑imagine and then design my life, and all the possibilities in it, and the possibilities I don’t as yet see, in behalf of co‑creating with the world, a vibrant, totally extraordinary, meaningful, awake, inspiring, and enlivening future. I want to call this moment “a time for creation,” a time for cultivating what the Zen folks call “beginner’s mind,” as the…
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January 16, 2024
Stop. Do not move. Let the swirling waves inside you still themselves. Stop. until you can hear your intuition moving you. Trust your intuition. Let it guide your way. It’s fine to let all the possibilities in to see the landscape that lies before you. While the world moves at its frantic pace, deep is what’s being asked for. Time to take the next step out in silence. Time to be alone. Time to go inside, to know thyself to let nature and your own voice find you and shape you into new forms, forms that grant you freedom.
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January 3, 2024
Dearest You, Greetings to you, and many blessings to you, as we complete 2023 and enter 2024. As we begin to look to our new year, intending to create a great and passionate life, we often look to goal setting, affirmations, or planning to find our way. Many of us have tried that and are wondering if there is a better way. While it’s counterintuitive, I have found there IS a better way. In 1974, in a conversation I had with Swami Muktananda, a Great Teacher of other Teachers, known as a Sadhguru, from India, it was like I “got…
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January 2, 2024
Tomorrow, we turn toward the light. Today, we go inside where night can find us. There, our secret troubles can heal us, can give us the gift of life. This darkness comforts me, holds me, nourishes me, wraps me in its cloak of peace. Deep rest. I let what is dying die, stay still until it’s time. Quietly anticipate the light and rebirth soon to come.
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January 2, 2024
As we open the new page, create completion, which makes room for new beginnings for 2024, I take a moment to THANK YOU for opening your ears and being an open receiver of my words these last few years. As my intention and commitment is to serve, to awaken consciousness, to be a clear channel, and to make the biggest difference I can make through whatever venue I work inside of, I THANK YOU for your engagement. Your openness, your setting aside time to think upon what I have said, and your Presence mean so much to me. I thank…
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December 19, 2023
There is inner travel and outer travel. While most of these postings have concerned themselves with inner travel, this is different. I have always held (outer) travel as a unique opportunity – for discovery, exploration, and for learning. Learning the ways, the nature of, the thinking, and the behaviors of people who think differently than I do, who have different norms, and who have been brought up in a different culture. When I travel, I am beyond curious: I intentionally cultivate a commitment to wonder. The amazing, extraordinary trip my husband and I just completed during the month of November…
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November 28, 2023
Give yourself this gift to feed your Soul: Writing time where writing can lead to your own deep and hidden thoughts. Let them come to you unbidden and find you as your words take shape on page. Step aside your critic. Let your intuition speak from the silent corners of your heart, transporting you to somewhere new, somewhere you have never been before. Open a new door: You are hungry for your words. Allow yourself to be romanced by something larger than yourself. That’s what we’re all here for.
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November 28, 2023
I am going to say something which your mind might argue with, and yet in the over forty years I have been working with people, I have never found this NOT to be the case. YOU are profoundly wise. The key is to tap into that wisdom. It lies beneath the surface. And you have to get silent enough to connect and hear your own Wisdom Speaking. A friend of mine, Cheryl Lafferty Eckl, a dear and inspiriting friend, an author whom I met on “Turas D’Anam,” or “Journey of the Soul” in Ireland, wrote a book called Being Your…
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November 13, 2023
Given today’s turbulent external climate, being centered, present, and leading ourselves and others from our center, from our Source, our light, is so very critical. As we brighten our own light, we brighten others’. So being awake, being aware, being honest, and being real as we accept our current experience and ground ourselves underneath the confusion that lives on the surface of everyday life is critical. Today, in behalf of opening space for you to do some direct inner work, if you’d like to, I’d like to share with you the first three paragraphs of the introduction of my book,…
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October 31, 2023
The world recovers from its long illness haltingly, at best. The waves of shortages of starts and stops are like the shifting sands of a sand dune hill I attempted to climb Morocco earlier this year. The Saharan desert beckoned with its beauty. A lone person standing. on a dune, faced east, toward the afternoon light. We dismounted from our camels at the behest of our Berber guides who beckoned us to climb that dune. The tide seemed against me; three quick runs forward, and down I slid again. We are just beginning to see that there is no turning…
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October 31, 2023
The camels moved slowly across the Saharan desert. There, it was easy to be one with the camel, the sand, the sky, and the easy lope. It was quiet. Below the quiet was a kind of Silence where time did not exist. Just me and the camel, and the camel in the line in front of me, as we crossed the sands. The world is very noisy right now. Turbulent, chaotic, where the stormy seas send waves like tsunamis across our lives. In a recent workshop I took with poet Mark Nepo, he said, “While we may feel powerless to…
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October 17, 2023
What Spirit wants to give you and what you want to cause may or may not be the same.
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October 17, 2023
From Shifting Sands to Celebrating Life Last Spring, my husband and I rode on a camel to watch the sun set on the Saharan desert near the Morocco/Algerian border. Getting on and off the camel was an experience I will never forget. It was kind of like riding a bucking horse. You had to hang on to the metal bars, not to fall off, bars which are on the “saddle” of the camel. When we arrived at our destination, far into the desert, our guides asked us to get off the camel and climb to the top of the sand…
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October 10, 2023
We are the Northern Lights. Watch us! Green and pink and purple and white. Shimmering, glimmering, whispering, “Watch us! Don’t leave for a moment For each moment is now, each moment is new! If you glance away, you won’t recognize< who we have become. Let yourself breathe deeply in awe. Be with us as we arrange and re‑arrange ourselves each and every moment. Glance away and you will see a new shape, a new expression a re‑invention of ourselves. Be all right with your new world, shape – changing as it is. Rest and accept. See each shape as a…
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October 10, 2023
It has been time for rest. For the deep Sabbath that comes from leaving one world and entering another. I’ve been working nonstop for many moons. While I love my work, I’m passionate about my work, and I am blessed and privileged to be present to the transformation of lives that come from people deeply engaging in my work, it was time for rest. The need for it, the necessity of it, was rolling over me like a tsunami. And rest I took. Eight months ago, Don and I booked a trip to The Yukon, where, last week, we stayed…
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September 26, 2023
Let go and love the way the world turns. Be with it. Allow it. Notice it. Even, embrace it. When you rail against it, you become part of the same energy that stopped the flow at the beginning. Be the holder of it. Know that it, too, has a destination to, finally, merge as one with all. Listen deeply to your heart inside and those things you know are anciently true. Trust in your essential wisdom to lead the way. The world is in flux. You will find your way. “All things must pass.” Let them go. May I be…
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September 26, 2023
I have been thinking about trust of late. I have recently been confused with all the possibilities bounding toward me each day, and I have come to discover myself somewhat overwhelmed by them all, difficult to decipher what to act upon through the strategic mind. Being committed to living with inner peace, I started thinking about trust, as I remember that trust is the source of peace and that without trust, there is no peace. That knowledge living in my memory is nothing. That knowledge lived, inhabited, is everything. So, I have been thinking about trust. Brother David Steindl‑Rast calls…
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September 12, 2023
Dancing in the water, the bright orange sun winks at me through the branches of the pine. The ceiling falling is nothing, being present to such beauty.
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September 12, 2023
“We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” PAULO COELHO Last week, the ceiling fell in my lower family room, where I house all my books, papers, and quite a bit of work. Really. This really happened. Like a rip in the fabric of the force. A steady drip, drip, drip, from the kitchen above had been falling on the sheetrock for who knows how long, and finally, it all came crashing down. We had been out to eat the night before and did not hear the sound. All my Crossing Thresholds…
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August 29, 2023
You have seenif you give everything the timeto unfold,if you have patience, everythinggrowsto be itselfin its own timing. When you drop down deepinto the Stillness of the Centeryou will findyou are One with it All. The flowers don’t bloom until they are ready.The crocus sleeps under the soil until the spring.The bear awakens only after the winter.Solely in fall can the grapes be harvested. Gravity carries the river to the sea. While man’s world moves at its frantic pace,in accordance with the mind,nature has her own timing. Follow her rules. Grow your gardenin accord with the sun, and you will…
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August 29, 2023
“We need to move at the speed of guidance.” Michael Lerner, Commonweal Founder Recently, I found myself in a condition of being confused, unclear, and stressed. Being committed to expanding my reach and making a larger contribution, many possibilities, and opportunities had started to come my way. I wanted to choose them all! In addition, I was moving through a passage of high stress, with many significant changes and passages my own clients were moving through, and I needed to find my own way, and my own relationship to the changes. I had a navigation issue on my hands.…
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August 15, 2023
Drop down deep. Beneath the Silence, into the Stillness. There, you will find your Self, Loved Known Held Connected to all the Beings and Things of the Universe. Drop down into your body. Experience your fears as, simply, bodily sensations. When allowed to be they stop consuming you and your attention. When father passed on, and left his body behind, I was told by a seer, he was surprised to find he was young again, playful again, ran with delight across the soft sands near the beach. Drop down deep where you find your own reflection as Source in the…
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August 15, 2023
– Photo by Mariel Gale I’ve noticed many people have a lot of fear these days. Only, we actually don’t “HAVE” our fears, we ARE our fears. And the two are very distinct. Being our fears, we live in a world of threat. The world we live in is one of survival, disconnection, protection, and separation. Having our fears, we are “right‑sizing” them, as author Mark Nepo says. When you put salt in a glass and drink from the glass, he says, the water tastes very bitter. When you put that exact same amount of salt in a lake, and…
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August 1, 2023
He was sitting at the Entrance to the lobby, the gateway to the event, when we entered. “Have a great time,” he said, like he meant it. Not a casual remark, but an instruction from a Teacher from beyond. I did. “You deserve it,” he told me later. I passed through the threshold of the lobby to the lawn where the gate keeper took our tickets to heaven. I promised myself I would dance, and I did. Later, as we left the lawn, You know, THAT lawn, where the Great Tree spreads its wings and shelters you in its arms…
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August 1, 2023
The Buddha taught: “If you know as I know the benefit of generosity, you would not let an opportunity go by without sharing.” And, so, I share with you a very personal story. Last night, as Don and I were exiting the lobby of the hotel from a beautiful, energy filled, heart filled, body filled, evening with Danny Vernon, a great and humble channeler of the energy and “beingness” and voice of Elvis Presley, a most unusual event occurred. I was “gob smacked” by a man sitting in a chair outside the lobby, next to the walkway where everyone was…
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July 18, 2023
(Three Haiku) White birch sheds its bark in tandem with the trunk’s growth, making way for new. The slow, white bark peels off the Birch tree’s trunk, ready for its new skin. White bark like paper peeling its way to new air. The trunk grows to new life.
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July 18, 2023
In July, in Isle Royale National Park this year, my husband and I took a hike along one of Isle Royale’s uneven trails, and found ourselves walking a path through a forest of Birch. The Birch’s trunk was peeling, like paper. In fact, this kind of tree is called, “Paper Birch.” I asked my husband about this natural process. He said, “As the Birch grows, the diameter of the trunk expands slowly. The old bark peels off to make room for the new bark to grow underneath.” I was astounded, as his speaking became a metaphor, reminding me of me,…
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July 3, 2023
Inner and Outer Traveling By Amba Gale Being One with the Pine tree across the bay. Pointing upward towards the sun, Pointing downward into the lake. As above, so below. Which way do you wish to go? The Way is both, you know.
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July 3, 2023
Here, at Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior, the largest island in the largest lake of the US, I let my eyes rest upon, and, join my energy with, the tall pine tree across the harbor, strong, stalwart, true. I am happy to greet you now, having just returned from an astonishing six‑week adventure to three entirely distinct places, histories, cultures – Morocco, with its golden Saharan desert, wandering labyrinthian alleyways, souks in medinas (old part of town) kasbahs, delicate crafts, mosques, mellahs (Jewish sections of towns), interesting, spicy food and welcoming, inclusive people. Yes, we rode on a…
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June 20, 2023
Wonder‑fullness fills my first sight, I open my eyes to this day. The sun laughs joyfully over my shoulder, playing with the sea as it dances. The ice on our deck laughs as it melts in the light. First sight. The sweet scent of incense infuses my senses. Bright, bright morning, Filled with play, I enter my day. First sight, and a sacred sense that all is right, Filled with First Sight Yes! Yes! Yes!
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June 20, 2023
“Gratitude makes optimism sustainable.” –Michael J. Fox “Love at first sight” has been an old cliché I have lived with through my many years on the planet, yet, when I think about it, if I can transport myself there, to first sight, I bring myself to love, the love that is fully available, waiting for me, just on the other side of letting go of everything that I already know. I’ve noticed, though that we human beings generally…
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June 6, 2023
Here. Take my hand. Let me lead you to a new land where childhood Innocence sees with new eyes all things new. Sight and insight are woven together like a double helix. The breath of awe and wonder reveals the extraordinary (here—and there–and everywhere) that lies dormant underneath the ordinary until Awakened by Beginner’s Mind. There, the Spirit that lives in all things can be felt, seen, and listened. There, we are never alone.
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June 6, 2023
Beginner’s Mind…. An entrance into the Extraordinary. What is it? “How do I access that?” you might ask. This was the case in our last public Heart of Leadership, where Amanda, a vibrant and committed participant, was leaning into that question. An important question. An extraordinary question. A question which, if you were not on board for a breakthrough in your life, you would never be asking. Beginner’s Mind. The Mind that is Present, in Presence, with Nothing Going On. No analyzing, no judging, no trying to understand, no figuring it out, no comparing what is being said to what…
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May 23, 2023
Gentle breeze stirs the branches of the pine and cottonwood today, as the silver sun swims in the water near our shore. I hear the gentle movement within as well, as Spring comes toward me this year. The Magnolia is budding, beautiful in her white, pink gown, soon to be ready to greet the day in her full glory and then shed that dress for another, donning her green through the summer. Spring arrives without, within. For I can feel the gentle stirring inside as well, as though something is about to happen. Something new, some surprise coming to arrive…
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May 23, 2023
This Spring, one epoch of my life seems to be ending, another beginning. That passage seems resonant with these times. But how do I listen for the new beginnings that are coming my way? I like to think of people as “clearings.” I know, I know, a strange word. What does that mean? A clearing is a space for the existence of something. For example, while air is not a clearing for the purpose of a pen, paper is. “What am I a clearing for?” is a question I often ask myself. Some people are a clearing for disempowered people…
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May 9, 2023
When you are Wonder‑Filled Everything matters. The ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary and your own first sight transports you to bliss. A tree, a cup, a leaf, a magnolia petal. Sit under the Oak. Be delighted by its presence. Drink from the cup. Let your body fill with Warm Happiness. Be with the leaf. And if you listen deeply enough, she will sing to you. When you smile when you sit, the smile will enliven your entire body. If you were blind, having eyes to see with would be miraculous. If you were deaf, hearing the song of the…
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May 9, 2023
While “Time and the Art of Living” is the title of a book by Robert Grudin, it is a beautiful distinction, this idea of exploring our relationship to time, and no time, otherwise known as Being Present. In these days of moving so quickly through life, in this rapid – fire paced world of ours, we often, simply, forget to take the time to STOP, LOOK, (observe, from Presence), and Listen (to what all of nature, others, and life are saying to us). This listening also includes what we are saying to ourselves, for when we take a deep dive…
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April 25, 2023
This young in heart, gentle man is gifted by his daughter with a birthday gift: one miraculous ticket to the miraculous opening game of the opening day of the baseball season. What a gift, and what a conundrum! What a time for one moment in time, to come to grips with what has integrity. He has an important prior engagement and people to whom he has given his promise. Either way, he is causing a breach– A breach of heart or A breach of word. What does he do? He chooses. He apologizes for the breach of word, making whole…
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April 25, 2023
It was before the course began, on Day Five, of our last, public, Heart of Leadership . Day Five, the last day of the course, is a deep dive within which the participants explore the art of resolving breakdowns well, and even creating breakthroughs from breakdowns; an art and science ever present as a needed arrow in your quiver if you are a leader, or if you are interested in leading a life well lived. Breakdowns, or sudden obstacles that seem to bar the way, are ever present in our lives, in recurring shapes and forms. Better get down to…
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April 11, 2023
– Photo taken by Mariel Gale Being in the Space of and holder of the space of and carver of the space for Transformation is not an easy thing nor a light thing nor an un‑rigorous thing. It is not casual, but causal, not serendipitous, but intentional, not wobbly, but Fierce. It demands Total Wholeheartedness, and Courage. The archer shoots the arrow with her bow and hits the target every time. There is no prescription. We must be fluid, and dance with the conversation as it unfolds. This is a wonder. What is it to bring forth such Loving Givingness…
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April 11, 2023
– Photo taken by Mariel Gale What is transformation? While the dictionary defines it as a “dramatic change in form or appearance” or “an extreme, radical change,” I think of it as a shift… from one way of being to another It is the shift the moth makes when it cocoons itself and emerges as a butterfly. It is the shift the tadpole makes when it evolves itself into a frog The above is a photo of my daughter’s vivarium, where she spends some delightful time each day, appreciating her plants and being with her frogs within their nature‑based environment…
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March 28, 2023
If you worry, notice it. And laugh. You need not bow to the internal voice that craves, more than anything, to grab you and swallow you and take you to a dark place. That does not help, at all, at all. “Will I ever be able to write again?” “Perhaps Spring won’t come this year.” “When will this stupid war be over?” “Will we ever get to travel safely again?” “Am I eating too many carbs?” “Will the weather ever clear up?” “What if my blood pressure goes too high?” “What if…what if…what if…” The possibilities for worry are countless.…
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March 28, 2023
The Life of Worry is very distinct from the Life of Living. When we worry, we find ourselves caught up, in our head. The rat’s treadwheel of worry is never ending, and a loop unto itself. Worry begets worry. Soon we are so scrunched up inside we are hardly able to move. Living on the other hand, is wondrous. When we enter the living stream of life, we find ourselves connected, belonging, at one with other creatures, both animal and human alike, able to gaze at the heavens, and say “Hallelujah, I am alive!” So: how to move from one…
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March 14, 2023
Open your eyes. Open your ears. Open your taste buds. Give space to your fears. Open your touch. Open your heart. Find intuition in this new world apart. Be grateful for Life! It is a gift that’s been given. When you are present, that’s when you are living.
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March 14, 2023
In a world in which so many paths are possible, the question, “What shall I do?” often takes a forefront in our lives. Before that, is the question, “What determines what I do?” Here is what I have found: I participate in that which brings meaning to my life, which brings joy, which makes me come alive. I eliminate that which, over time, darkens my heart. I engage in what uplifts, allowing my spirit to soar. I may not always be happy. Happy or unhappy are passing waves. What gives my life depth are relationships that are uplifting. I have…
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February 28, 2023
This morning, the white cloud arrested my attention: bird taking flight in its sea of blue. The wind rests gently on the water, a light blanket of softening ripples. Nearer to shore, a duck’s wake makes a circle. What if I should call all this –what I am present to— “amazing?” The white cloud. The bird/cloud taking flight. The wind resting on the water. The duck’s wake. Amazing. Now, some electronic sounds disturb the silence. Every thirty seconds. Amazing. I remember that joyfully, I used to name those cloud shapes as a little girl. Amazing. Cottonwood, there, its limbs bear…
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February 28, 2023
What’s in a word? Everything! The whole world! As I listen attentively, wholeheartedly exploring this new world of ours, letting go of my expectations and attachments along the way, my thoughts of how things “should be,” I cultivate resilience, as I discover, discern, and deepen my walking the path of “what brings me alive.” Many of the distinctions and themes I have been “leaning into” over these years return to me and resonate with me, calling to me to be explored even more deeply: unconditional commitment, enthusiasm, wholeheartedness, generous listening, compassion, patience, simplicity, faith, integrity, courage. A few days ago,…
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February 14, 2023
May you step forward into many new journeys new islands for exploration and adventure. May you arrive at each island, intensely curious, open, willing to discover what you didn’t know you didn’t know, an experimenter, an explorer, fresh, and ready to pioneer. May you move in accord with your essential nature. May each of your islands greet your arrival with invitation, welcome, and celebration. May you be open to surprises. May the ferryman in his sturdy wooden boat always be there for you, to take you to your next crossing, after you embody the Teaching of that Island. May you…
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February 14, 2023
“When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart, and where old tracks are lost, a new world is revealed with its wonders.” ––Rabindranath Tagore Bengali poet/philosopher Tagore opens us up to some brilliant questions: What old words is it time to let die out on the tongue? What new melodies are ready to break forth from the heart? What old tracks is it time to lose? What wonders are the new world revealing to me? As I, sometimes cautiously, sometimes boldly, move out of my self ‑imposed 3 year exile from traveling, and…
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January 31, 2023
May we be with one another, touch our souls, one to one, slowing as we circle in a dance where our hearts beat as one. No breath separates us here, no clashing of the swords gnashing of the teeth, nor wielding of the shields in defensiveness, divisiveness, pretense, and argument. Only the peace and compassion that comes from a well of deep Understanding, of listening to one another’s heartbreak, of knowing the purity of Speaking and Being that comes from listening from love.
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January 31, 2023
When seeing a strange photograph like the one above, you might, perhaps, think I am asking you about the geographical location. I am, however, not. I am, instead, asking you a question around where you are located when you are with anther human being. .…At first glance, this may occur to you as a peculiar question, for sure, but one, when responded to with “over there, with them,” makes all the difference in the essential quality of the conversation. When you are truly “over there, with them,” what can open up is a profound quality of connection, and the person…
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January 17, 2023
(Upon reading “The Woodcarver,” by Chuang Tzu, as we enter 2022) Out there, the green grass of Eire and the unshorn sheep, beyond the rock hewn wall and the wild Atlantic, they hover, like Himalayan mountains whose unattainable peaks call to you as if you were a monk, climbing those impossible stairs ready to go to mass< ready to say your prayers ready for anything God has to give you. Except now. Now you find it is difficult, if not impossible to accept the stairs, the chants, the prayers, the weather of the stormy seas, the monastic life. While the…
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January 17, 2023
“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King This is a time of new beginnings, for my life, for our lives, for the world. In the last few years, we have been navigating our way through the challenging space of constraints, cocooning ourselves in our home, finding new ways for living a life worth living. In the midst of the trauma of such a sudden change, the separation of ourselves from a world that had a certain momentum, we find ourselves at the brink of questions that want to be…
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January 3, 2023
From our two‑chaired back dock sitting place (as comfy as a lawn), the sunlit wakes, way across the lake, is how we see them. They are here, now there, now gone. My husband’s feet rest on the dock, light, as we hunger to keep their wake within our sight. They’re small; too small to really catch a glimpse, our sight no match for seeing past this great distance. We do not see them—only their wake— in the green soft stillness of the tree‑mirrored lake. As we seek to join them in their afternoon, we bring out the binoculars and see…
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January 3, 2023
With deep love for all – that – is, and a profound respect for the earth and the land, and with honor for you, and a profound sense of the privilege of my life, the opportunity to serve That which is greater than myself, I welcome you, and welcome us all, into our next year. Somehow, I am sensing my own approach to this year would be well served by creating a commitment to “Living in Wonderment.” The action dimension of that is “Listening for Wonderment.” That is active; that is creative. Listening for Wonderment magnetizes a certain horizon, borne…
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December 20, 2022
I. The trees are not complex. The pine boughs simply hang towards the earth happily swaying in the wind. II. I can hear the temple bells behind me being played with by the loving wind. III. The candle flickers, flame dancing this way and that, unsure of where it’s going. It doesn’t care. IV. The sea moves up and down mirror of the sky milk cloud melts to dark blue. V The Buddha sits in Silence. Mudra Stilling – try it! Grounded as he sits. VI. All things come and go. Shadows casting shape shifts.…
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December 20, 2022
With gratitude, I begin this posting with a deep “Thank you.” Thank you for your listening, your receptivity to whatever these postings, over the last three years, have brought to you. I have delighted in hearing from those of you who have written, to express your inspiration, or your appreciation, or your companionship with me, as we pilgrim together in our journeys. Just before the Winter Solstice, the dark beckons. It is that time of year. I find it is both time to stop, to retreat within, and do some inner work…the work of releasing the residual tensions, and incompletions…
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December 6, 2022
There is a hidden disturbance in the universe that shows itself in many, and sometimes disruptive, ways. If you meet it with welcoming Grace, it will give you Everything you need to guide yourself and others to a blessed place. This hidden disturbance can only show itself as love if you are kind and welcome it with open arms. Do not let it unravel the fabric of your being. The whole can stay whole with the eyes and ears of a pure and grateful heart.
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December 6, 2022
Ganesh, the Master, incense rising from his crown chakra, brings me the Teachings from hardships.‑Amba Gale, November 28. 2023 One of the most powerful deities in the pantheon of Hindu deities is Ganesh. Ganesh is the bringer, and remover, of obstacles. The Hindus tell us that our job, as humans, is to move through the teachings that obstacles bring, on behalf of strengthening our muscles for living life wakefully. When confronted with an obstacle in our path, what do we do? What do you do? I’ve noticed, myself, that I often attempt to positive think it away, avoid it, deny…
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November 21, 2022
In a recent posting, I invited us to entertain what it’s time for. In this one, I am asking a new question: what is it not time for? Which begs the question, as well, what is time for? What it’s not time for is avoiding, hardening our hearts to, the sadness, the woundedness, the broken heartedness, the grief. What it’s not time for, is to retreat into resignation, to not be willing to experience the joy, as well, to insist in living in my old story…. being on automatic, following, with no awareness, my old habitual patterns, living out of…
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November 21, 2022
You are an explorer, a path maker, a step – by – step walker. No one on the entire planet can draw your map for you. Everyone on the entire planet bows to internal and external demands and does so willingly or unwillingly. Best to embrace those demands in a welcoming way, or not accept the demands at all. If this cannot be done, we sacrifice our integrity. Take your pick: Victim or Author– the choice is yours. Awake Alive Conscious People do not plan too much, nor get attached to their plans. Instead, they listen, deeply, and then they…
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November 7, 2022
There is a straight line that only you know how to draw that takes you from here to there or, more precisely, from there to here, in a world of possibility. And, if you follow it you will be true to your own North Star. It will not fail you. No matter the turbulent and unprecedented circumstances of your life. For one thing, you will know that you are being guided. For another, you will know the Guidance is true. The Future, If you let it, will magnetize you into it. Do not let your mind or your considerations, whatever…
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November 7, 2022
I am deeply feeling that we are, that I am, at the end of a particular cycle, a particular iteration, a particular passage, in my own life. And that it is time to move on. Covid, along with the many passages I have taken within Covid, has re‑shaped me. I am feeling the necessity of a retreat – a time to go into a kind of silence where we can meet the original part of ourselves, in this new beginning, new cycle of existence. This is an invitation to go into the quiet, and below that, into the Silence, to…
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October 25, 2022
The wade to the front dock is deeper than you think. You will get wet and cold. To stand on the front dock and celebrate the sun, the wind, the blue sky and the water, requires some sacrifice. Leave what is dead and time to shed. Leave your old life behind.
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October 25, 2022
As I listen into the question, “What’s it time for now?” I can hear the universe calling: This is a time for New Beginnings. It is a time for re‑examining our lives, for leaving behind those previous identities and conversations that were right in one life’s iteration and not right in the next. In the summer 2019, I did just that. I journeyed to Isle Royale, National Park, in Lake Superior. That was the outer journey. The inner journey was one of crossing a threshold that was a challenging and dangerous crossing for me. Why dangerous? Dangerous, because if I…
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October 11, 2022
I look up up up to the sky as Phoenix rose away from the clouds, said, simply, “I am free. Follow me, if you will. Here is a hint for the good life: Be generous. Give yourself the gift of forgiveness. Let go of your righteousness, and resentment and get free. Once free, declare your own future. Do not let the reasonableness and agreement and dis‑ease of the day deter you from creating a life of joy. Just let yourself fly, fly far from the ashes of your last life of yesterday. Carry with you only that which protects like…
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October 11, 2022
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.–Heraclites I’ve been realizing… We think we live as a continuity, but we do not. Who we were yesterday may not BE the same person at all as who we are today. Conversations can cause a transformation. You can enter a conversation as one person and come out as a different person. Having just completed the first three days of leading The Heart of Leadership, for the leadership of Mary Bridge Children’s, an extraordinary healthcare system in this Great Northwest,…
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September 26, 2022
Let the Path come to you. It will, you know. You do not have to seek it or strive for it or work for it, or exhaust yourself, or push yourself or another. You just have to find what you love in the inner heart of your heart and follow that path. Like the Great blue who, simply, stretches his great wings and becomes a straight arrow – long feathered tail – long neck long beak everything aligned, one with another, flying northwards towards his next home, compass set. Purposeful. Great wings move body gently effortlessly uplifted easily by the…
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September 26, 2022
‘Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’–Howard Thurman I love this quote, by Howard Thurman. I love it so much, I created an entire course out of it, a course called “The Joy of Being, Designing your Life.” The phrase, “The joy of being,” is a phrase that jumped out to me, right into my heart, as I read “The Good Earth” by Eckart Tolle, another wonderful master whose good work has served me so well, in behalf of living in…
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September 12, 2022
Perhaps,after all,there is nothing to do but be, to drop inside, deep inside, and merge with what gives me peace. Perhaps,the path is to facethe sacred momentsgranted to meone by one by one by one by oneby the ever Living, ever Giving, Stream of Grace. Perhapsall this building outsidehas outrun its course.and my work is simple. What is mine will come to me of its own accord. “Patience,” counsels the inner voice. “Find your purpose in ‘Wait.’ Walk inside, where you can merge with the Great Blue Heron who waits patiently.” This absence of strivingbrings meto a bed of Deep…
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September 12, 2022
While the world wages wars and argumentativeness will, apparently, not cease, there is always this: The enduring truth of the poetic imagination. There, you are not lost. —Amba Gale In a world that announces chaos, violence, and unpredictable events at every turn, we are not immune from being deeply affected, personally. The teachings of these times, often laden with grief, with loss, with heart brokenness, also lead us into new insights, new revelations, new resiliences. And, they lead us sometimes, to a necessity to face our own reluctance to let go of all we already know, including all of our plans.…
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August 30, 2022
Be fearlessas you ride the lion of your heart. Be stillas you wait.Your future will unfold,just as it does. Go beyondthe fieldof right and wrongas you witnesseach new event appearing before you. Your daughter will be fine.She knows her heartand her way will unwindfor the teaching. Do not godown the roadthat disappearsinto the dark woods. Stay with the bird you see,flitting from branch to branch, joyful. Be free.
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August 30, 2022
Do you have the patience to waitUntil the dust settles and the water is clear?— Lao Tzu, Tao Ching The water is not yet clear.The dust has not yet settled. The changes are happening so rapidly, we must meet them with an open heart, with curiosity, and with a generous mind, a mind that lives beyond the borders of right and wrong, a mind that is willing to postpone all judgment, all expectations. Only here can I find peace, and a waiting that presages new futures founded in what “wants to happen.” As difficult as it might be, this is…
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August 16, 2022
I awoke last night. wind howling in a haunting cry, disturbing even my gentle house, rattling windows, shaking me out of my slumber. as if to arouse me from my sleep, as if to warn me about complacency a and the deep deadness that arrives from a life of too much familiarity. You awoke last night. wind howling in a haunting cry, disturbing even your gentle house, rattling windows, shaking you out of your slumber, as if to arouse you from my sleep, as if to warn me about complacency and the deep deadenss that arrives from a life of…
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August 16, 2022
While we are living in a world which is constantly changing, we are also wired for resisting change. Our relationships are changing, our ways of communicating with one another are changing, the kind of opportunities we have for educating, or developing ourselves are changing, ways of doing business are changing, people around us are changing, and our life circumstances are changing. Sometimes, these changes take the form of loss: a loved one is leaving us, a cherished job is disappearing, it’s time to move out of a home we have been living in, or work in a different way, either…
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August 2, 2022
“Comparison is the Thief of Joy.” —Teddy Roosevelt “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Teddy Roosevelt said that. A remarkable quote. This is my personal story about that, a story that took place during the first year of Covid, 2020. In March of this year, 2022, I had the privilege of leading my foundational program, a course called The Heart of Leadership, twice – one for a client company, and one for the public. It was the first time I led, live, in a public setting, since 2019, as I stopped making this conversation available during Covid, not able to…
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August 2, 2022
For years I tried to be someone I was not. Then, a crisis, and then I worked, I prayed, I went in deep into my heart. I met teachers, and met The Teacher in myself. I opened to Mystery, sought and called forth Source, and found that Spirit moves through me, through us all. I wrought a work of Giving and became generous, honed, still, fashioned myself to serve, through time. The more I grew the more I learned to be humble, and to be at peace. “I am still learning,” says the Artist from the Ancient Well of Spirit…
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July 19, 2022
Imagine yourself a leaf, being carried by the river. There, you will know Peace. Imagine yourself a feather being danced by the wind that carries. There you will know Joy. Imagine yourself a lake, rained on by the clouds There, you will know Fullness. Imagine yourself a stream, being a bed for the salmon. There you will know Birth and Death. Imagine yourself an ear, listening to another’s heart. There, you will meet Compassion. Imagine yourself a heron, fishing the abundant water. There, you will be Patience. Imagine yourself as a poet, facing the blank, white page. There, you will…
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July 19, 2022
“How can I be still? By flowing with the stream.” Lao Tzu said that, in his Book of Wisdom, The Tao Te ching, otherwise known as “The Way,” a philosopher poet/wise man of immense wisdom, in the 6th century. What an absolutely amazing realization. The streams and rivers do keep flowing, just like life. It is only our resistance to that flow, to what life offers us, presents us with, that incurs our agitation. “What is it that I am currently resisting?” is always a good question. What if we could be still, just surrender, just accept, just receive everything that…
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July 6, 2022
On a star studded, vibrant – with – the – breath – of – the – cold wind night, I pick my way down the rocky steps and branches climbing out of the soil. I don’t trip, as I am present to those branches even from their rocky bed, singing to me: “You can’t stop me from growing.” I like that song. It’s wild. It’s authentic. It’s real. I pick my way, I stumble my way, down to the dock, where the joy in my heart and the ecstasy of my Being join the shimmering, dancing, appearing, then disappearing, Glory…
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July 6, 2022
Think upon this: you are not lost. It may feel that way, at times, with the circumstances of the world swirling about us, as they are, and impinging upon our consciousness, as they do. However, consider this: You are not lost. You have only to touch the rare moment of Eternity, of Rest, of no time in time to know That Who You Are is beyond your small sense of yourself, your small sense of the world, and your small sense of being in this particular place at this particular time, in this particular world. You, however are Awareness waiting…
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June 28, 2022
I am creating a special edition of my blog posting this week, as I have had the privilege of being in a particular conversation that I’d say is vitally important at this time, a time of shifting sands, beneath our feet, a time of importance for intentionally crossing thresholds. This posting points to a potent distinction that allows such a threshold crossing. The painting, above, was created by Debbie Hulbert, a participant in our fall 2020 virtual offering of Crossing Thresholds, a course that was based on my newly published book, designed to facilitate participants in crossing their next threshold.…
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June 20, 2022
I stop and still myself that I might listen. I stop. Where is the light? Who am I in the face of this dis‑ease? Who are you? What are we to say to a world that has gone mad with grief with war with disarray with avoiding its own waking up? We stop. We rest. We stop that we may ask these questions. We stop that we may amplify that wise voice within that we might hear the guiding notes, the harmonies underneath that will show us the way from here in the middle of these dark woods, that a…
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June 20, 2022
Every five hundred to one thousand years, it is said, the Phoenix, a beautiful, scarlet and gold, giant, mythical bird, rises from the ashes of its own death. There is, the myth says, only one Phoenix on the planet at any one time. It sets itself on fire, inside of a nest of boughs an spices, and is consumed by the flames. Out of its own ashes, it arises, born newly. The regeneration of itself contains the ashes of its predecessor as an aspect of its next being. What a metaphor! This is such a time, for such an Awakening.…
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June 7, 2022
The Buddhists ask the question, “How do you keep your heart open in hell?” It is a worthwhile question, a relevant question, in all times, and perhaps, particularly, in these chaotic and anxiety – producing times, in this time of war, and despair, and senselessness violence and children dying. And underneath it all, is pain, anguish, brokenness. The importance, nay, the criticality, of living with an open heart, confronts us on a daily basis, for if we close our hearts, we die. “The brittle heart is easy to break,” my poem, “Heartbreak,” says, in my book, Crossing Thresholds. That message…
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June 7, 2022
When Heart break makes its way toward us from the farthest horizon, we start to close in fear that we will be flattened by the loss, never to stand again. When heart breaks come close like this, we close ourselves, Never to face or feel our wounds. The brittle heart is easy to break. Pain shut off and shoved aside hides in the years until a time when fearless heart we grow and our fierce soul takes on the past, releases all our tears and heals the broken heart. Broken open now. Breaking open, Not apart; This is how I…
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May 23, 2022
Without trust, there is no peace. I have been thinking a lot about trust of late, trust in the universe; trust in the Tao, trust in the journey, trust that we belong to one another, that we are interconnected, as deeply as the roots of the aspen grove are connected to one another underneath the soil. Brother David Steindl‑Rast, Benedictine monk and one of the great spiritual teachers of our time call Faith, which is very resonant with Trust, “the bliss of certainty.” That phrase stays with me, begging to be examined, as we know that the only certainty there…
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May 23, 2022
The sun is bright today. The sea is calm, the water close upon our shore. The houses on the cliff away greet the sun in peace. Nearby, three candles light my way to day and tell me I am safe. Still groundless int his time of chaos, I embrace the groundlessness, speak that I am well, that all is well. And all goes to its destination as though there were a guiding hand. The tide goes in. The tide goes out. the rhythms of the tide are clear. And life moves towards its destination as if there were a guiding…
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May 6, 2022
Hello, Merced you green flowing graceful Queen of all the rivers, sunlight sparkling like jewels on your robe of green, glowing with your laughter through my childhood, sewing all my younger days with gladness, growing with me, as I lean into life. May I flow, like you, Surprised, joyful, delighted by the currents carrying me to my own sea.
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May 6, 2022
February 9 is the “echoing” day of my birth. My husband and I gifted me with a journey to Muir’s Valley, Yosemite, now a Valley belonging to us all, where nature graces us with her beauty, her power, her wonder, her awesome, and the heart can sing with the rivers and the streams. Today, instead of some prose, may I offer you a few Blessings, and the gifts of pleasure, enjoyment, and heart‑song as you listen to my husband Don’s original Bluegrass song, Shadowline. Accompanied by our video, I invite you to delight with us in the shadows cast by…
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April 26, 2022
Let the warm tea slowly glide across your tongue. Let your eyes fall gently upon the cat on his back, carrying the brightly lit fire. Let the sun sparkles to your right remind you that you live near water on blessed land. Let your mind’s eye take you to just the other day, when you and your daughter gazed out the window where five seals covered, one with fin and tail in the air, the current carrying their sleek sweet bodies and bobbing heads as they surrendered to the rocking of the sea. Sometimes, the barks of the seals in…
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April 26, 2022
This is a time for new beginnings. Each morning, I give myself a new beginning, consciously, intentionally, gratefully. In his book, Consolations, David Whyte says, “Beginning well involves a clearing away of the crass, the irrelevant, and the complicated to find the beautiful, often hidden lineament of the essential and the necessary.” I “begin well” by gifting myself each day with a morning practice, a practice where, in my chair, in my “poetry corner,” I create ways of settling into silence. Here, I find peace within, and the gift of experiencing life as a blessing. Poetic words, as well, start…
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April 11, 2022
This last week, in our first three days of our Heart of Leadership, one of the participants was a man whose purpose in life, whose orientation, whose commitment in life, is to hold a space for all different points of view to be heard, gotten, and appreciated. That reminded me of a cartoon I once saw, with two people on each side of the number 6, or 9, depending upon the point of view. The man who is standing on the side of the number that looks like “9” says to the person looking at the 6, “Nine.” The other…
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April 11, 2022
A blind child guided by his mother admired the cherry blossoms.–Kikakou Perspective Creates Our World Three Viewpoints,Upon Reading Kikakou’s Haiku in Mark Nepo’s Book of Awakening By Amba Gale The son Darkness, they think. Yet, touching you, Your beauty speaks, reaches, deepens, touches my own. While inside, it is dark, where I am real and hidden, I see perfectly. I absorb your delicacy, your pink color, your love, deep in my heart, and celebrate. The Loving Mother Guiding my son, I have pity, for he cannot see the color of the cherry blossom. And yet, I have just seen through…
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