I bumped into a tweet about Seth Godin’s latest blog yesterday. The title is “All models are wrong, some models are useful.” This is how I feel about both traditional and nontraditional medical models. Even traditional science is not a perfect representation of the human body, but it’s a good enough model to provide healing, […]
#AtoZChallenge: N is for Nontraditional Medicine Read More »
We are midway through the month of April, midway through the challenge. It’s a good point for taking stock. There’s still a ways to go, but look how far we’ve come! It takes a bit of a nudge to keep the momentum going. I’m also midway through the 40 days of saying my mantra. Om
#AtoZChallenge: M is for Midpoint up the Mountain Read More »
“Little Gidding” is the name of the 4th poem in T.S. Eliot’s book, Four Quartets. It’s an important steppingstone in my transformation for three reasons. It was one of the poems recited at the professional training I attended for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The workshop was an introduction not only to meditation but also to feeling
#AtoZChallenge: L is for Little Gidding Read More »
Soon after I started meditating daily, I decided to stop wearing a wristwatch. I began to observe that wearing a watch was adding to my sense of time stress. I was focusing on what was next rather than on what I was doing in the moment. After I made my decision to take my watch
#AtoZChallenge: K is for Kairos Read More »
One of my fellow A-to-Z bloggers, Jenny Writes, is using Joy as her theme for the whole month of April. For me, it’s a touchstone in my transformation. When I was at my lowest point, not knowing which way to turn, there was a compass needle inside me that always pointed in the direction of
#AtoZChallenge: J is for Joy Read More »
In 1983, when I was 29 years old, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a psychological test of preferences based on Carl Jung’s theories. The test was administered to a group of retreat participants from my church. I found out I was an introvert. Suddenly, a lot of things became clear. It wasn’t that
#AtoZChallenge: I is for Introversion Read More »
Happiness is like light in that it has wave/particle duality. It comes both as a flow of energy and in discrete foil-wrapped packets of dark chocolate. It is both an outcome and a process. Happiness can be pursued, but it often arises unbidden, when my focus is not on being happy, but on being of
#AtoZChallenge: H is for Happiness Read More »
There is so much grief in the world now. It’s our milieu, like air in our lungs or water in the gills of the fish. Here is a stanza from Jane Kenyon’s poem “Let Evening Come.” To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop in the oats, to air in the lung let evening
#AtoZChallenge: G is for Grief Read More »
E is for Everyday Everyday, humdrum, quotidian. It’s where the story starts. It’s the ordinary world before Rumpelstiltskin comes along with his call to adventure. Most stories don’t spend very much time at this stage of the story; it’s just the jumping-off point. The truth is, it takes the protagonist a long time to live
#AtoZChallenge: E & F Are for Everyday Forgiveness Read More »
When I was flailing, floundering in a toxic work environment, I didn’t know how to get out. My inner peacemaker was at war with my need to stand up for myself. I found my way out in a graceful way that honored harmony and let me survive. I followed my curiosity to an Integrative Medicine
#AtoZChallenge: D is for Desire Read More »
