A very painful human experience is the feeling of regret. I know this because not only have I felt it myself, but also worked with so many people who felt very burdened by regret. There is that situation I remember, and the present thoughts in the mind look like this: I regret I didn’t spend…
Today I went to my very first open casket viewing of the death of the golden-hearted young man, a beautiful friend of mine, who suddenly died this past week. It was a mild, soft, mid-summer afternoon. I parked and crossed the street with heavy city traffic moving by in all directions. The very same funeral…
Learning something new, like a language, a method, a system, a routine….can be really fun….or really aggravating. Can’t I just know it already? You mean I have to learn ALL THOSE WORDS in a whole different language? This will take forever. Boring. Not worth it. Too much energy. Too hard. Recently, you may be able…
Yesterday I received not one, but two letters from participants in the One Year Program of Inquiry that I facilitate. Our group began meeting in June, and we connect by phone or skype with a different topic each month. Then we’ll meet live and in person in both September and next March (for those who…
Yesterday morning I learned that a young man had died who I did not know extremely well. Not the details of his life, or what he was doing every day. Whatever “knowing” someone extremely well means…. I had found him totally and completely delightful and sweet, like giving him a big huge hug, from the…
It is C*R*A*Z*Y how much the mind loves to compare. Sometimes it seems to be in constant motion, holding up two or more scenarios and picking which one it likes best. We compare that person’s situation to our own situation, and the neighbors situation, and the people we knew ten years ago and their situation,…
Major life transitions can bring for many people a sense of foreboding, planning, thrill, anxiety, or nervousness about the unknown. When even one thing is changing in someone’s life, where day-to-day living is altered in some way, then this can be categorized as a “transition” or period of adding something or subtracting something to or from your…
Quick announcement day: A few more spots left for August 10th Mini Retreat, a lovely afternoon diving into The Work in private retreat cottage northeast Seattle (Goldilocks Cottage) 1:30-5:30 pm. This is time set aside for exploring your mind and investigating your stressful beliefs, something so many people crave, yet seem to never wind up…
One of the most interesting areas of investigation of my own behavior has been around understanding my beliefs of the way I think people “should” behave if we are all supposed to be civilized, nice, generous, kind human beings. If we’re good people, we act like “this” (make a list). And if everyone acted like…
Recently I was waiting for my teenage daughter while she went to an important appointment. I had to move my schedule around, just to help her get to the appointment, and miss work that I normally would have been doing at that time. I brought my laptop with me so I could multi-task and get some writing…
