TIME TOGETHER

I sat with a friend a few days ago, me drinking an Americano and her a chai, and discussed our lives and perceptions. We’ve changed over the years, a little wiser, possibly a little smarter, but definitely happier. We touched on spirituality and what that means, our families and loved ones.

HOPE, NOT FEAR

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. – Nelson Mandela I woke this morning to a bramble of thoughts. Some of those thoughts were encouraging, others weren’t, and I feared the less encouraging thoughts would overpower the positive ones, which could make for an unpleasant day. To move from fear to hope is […]

SURRENDER

Sometimes I struggle with my invisibility cloak. I lay it over my shoulders and submerge under its supposed warmth and protection. I soon languish there, hidden and alone. My depiction sounds dramatic and seedy, like an old bar that’s never seen a bucket of sudsy water and a mop, but my description is more of […]

STEPPING STONES

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. – Johnny Cash There are times […]

DENIAL ANYONE?

I’ve found for myself that denial comes in two forms: denial of what is and denial of what could be. Both forms are exercised simultaneously. Denying what is, is like hiding behind a barbed-wire cloak, stalled out, forever languishing in my suffering and bafflement at why things can’t be different. When I do this stalling […]

AFRAID TO LOSE?

There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose. – Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain There are so many races to participate in: careers, relationships, hobbies, politics, physical health, and so on. Fear fetters many people in many […]

ENTHUSIASM SPARKS HOPE

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill Not an easy order, I can tell you that. I can’t say I haven’t lost my enthusiasm from time to time, actually, more than I want to admit. But I can say that today I am […]

GET IN THE GAME

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. – Abraham Lincoln I’m not big on effort per se, though I definitely enjoy the benefits of what effort can bring. I used to live in the fantasy of what my intended effort could reap without ever applying […]

DON’T TARGET FIXATE

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. – Helen Keller Target fixation is what us motorcyclists call it. Several years ago, while taking a motorcycle class to hone my riding skills, […]

GET BACK UP AND KEEP GOING

What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down. – Mary Pickford Failure, one of life’s playfellows. There are little everyday failures that we swipe from our minds because they seem inconsequential, like failing to use our turn signal when changing lanes. Even if a fellow driver honks at our blatant […]

BREATHE, PAUSE, AND CONSIDER

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched. – George Jean Nathan There is evidence to this fact. Studies have shown that we lose the ability to think straight when we are engulfed in anger. Our ability to function at our highest level of cognitive thought diminishes immensely. We are left with reactionary […]

CAN’T MANIFEST A REDO

Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that’s a hard lesson of reality. – Donna Tartt How many times have I crossed paths with this well-hidden truth? More than I can count. When we inevitably meet, I’m surprised at the visit, as if I believed we would never meet again. […]