buddha

What is Compassion?

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Sometimes we confuse compassion with rescuing someone else.  Compassion is not rescuing.  It is feeling the other person’s pain.  Compassion does not mean that you agree with how they see reality.  But it is understanding and caring about…
Aurora depicting mystery

Inside and Out

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Some of the big shifts in my life occurred when I started to look at the difference between inside and out.  Examining this difference allows you to discriminate between what you think you want (ego perspective) and what your life wants of…
Strengthening Family Bonds

Family

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This past Saturday Mike and I were married.  Our wedding was beautiful and felt blessed.  We were surrounded by love and support.  We shared our inner feelings about each other in a visible ceremony of commitment.  A wedding is such a powerful…
Accepting life's challenges depicted by light thru trees

Accepting Life’s Challenges

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As I work at accepting life's challenges, I find myself in a chapter of my life where I am sifting, sorting, and reorganizing who I am. Sometimes I see the more expansive parts of myself – the parts that can hold a goal over a long period…
trees depicting gratitude

The Practice of Gratitude is a Choice

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Post updated June 6th, 2020 What is the definition of gratitude? Gratitude is the emotion of being thankful. If we are thankful, we appreciate and are in connection with the thing we are grateful for. This can be something outside ourselves,…
releasing dove depicting creating our new world

Creating Our New World

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We are stepping forward into a new year. I know for me, right now I am acutely aware of all of my ‘flaws’ - all of the parts of me that I wish were more evolved, more capable of being completely unafraid, less neurotic, more generous, and…
Trees with path depicting path of dialogue

The Gift of Dialogue

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One of the memories that has been indelibly etched within me is a fight I had with my father. I had come home from college and found our old family cat Sissy with a huge abscess on her stomach.  She was clearly very sick and going down hill…
baby hank

Markers of Change

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At approximately 4 PM on July 28th, my cat Hank was put to sleep.  Over the next two days, I was at a wedding with two ceremonies.  The first was a ritualized Hindu wedding for the groom’s family and the second was the traditional American…
girl depicting letting go

Letting Go

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The other night I was in pieces.  Waves of intense grief and emotional pain were coursing through me. For the past week or so, my 14-year-old cat Hank has not been feeling well, and not eating much.  Hank is a small grey tabby that I got from…