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Thoughts on 2022 and 2023

2022 was the ‘year of intention.’  I didn’t have a single intention guiding the entire year; instead, I tried to live with intention instead of drifting mindlessly throughout the day.  It can be easy for us to become tunnel-visioned on what pops up...

Redefining the Self in Self-Worth

For years I’ve struggled with the idea I am not valuable because I produce less than a healthy, employed person.  The notion we are defined by our productivity, I’m sure, is rooted in some western capitalistic thought, and it was firmly embedded in me.  I...

From Hatred to Hope

I have come to understand I have hated myself for almost forty years.  I have been exploring anger, guilt, shame, and hope, but the more I tried to know what they are and what to do with them, I felt I was missing something important.  Hope is the mechanism for...

Uplifting and Depleting

At the end of his Ted Talk, Brady Wilson said, “People rarely leave your presence neutral. They either leave engaged or depleted.”  One of my favorite songs is by Underworld, in which the lyrics are, “What don’t lift you drags you down, keep...

Pursuing Peace Under Pressure

Pursuing Peace Under Pressure The Buddha teaches us “attachment is the cause of suffering.”  The Tao informs us “to see the limits of things, desire them.”  My therapist adds “relate but don’t attach.”  I have struggled with...

Of Anger and Helplessness

Of Anger and Helplessness For far too many years, I felt alienated because of my lack of anger.  As a young man, I saw first-hand the results of outward, destructive anger and vowed not to resemble that crowd.  Anger would give me anxiety, and I’d convert one...

Watching Villages Burn

Watching Villages Burn Twenty years ago, I was the Editor for the newspaper, discussing Bush v. Gore and trying to ensure maximum voter participation.   I could not have guessed how against the will of the popular vote, court-ordered cessations of recounts in a state...