Click to register for The Hidden Gifts In These Changing Times: 5 Keys To Mastering 2024 I am sharing this piece by David Whyte because of his beautiful articulation of the deeply felt experience of living, especially in gratitude. Please visit his website for more of his writings and programs. They are worth your time and investment. I hope you have an enjoyable holiday filled with everything wonderful and good. GRATITUDE is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives ..read more

We have a story about limitlessness in our cultural story, which, on the surface, sounds terrific. It means not having limits or bounds and is pretty much an anything-goes way of thinking. It is obviously wrong since nature is telling us to chill, unfortunately, without much effect. What happens with the idea of limitlessness is that some things are unexamined; one of those things is what we invest our time and energy in. What is also not considered is the price of that investment and the cost to us, others, and the well-being of our planet. Are Our Investments Self-Defeating? We always have ..read more

I have noticed more and more how much of our social conversation and social focal point is about rejection. I see it all over the media, in all sorts of topic areas. In politics, it seems to be a never-ending discussion about polls and who is up or down, who is “winning” or who is being rejected. We also hear that people vote based on their feelings of rejection. Is rejection all that matters? So many products are sold based on the idea that owning them means you are included, and not owning them means you are an outsider. How many things do we buy not to appear like we are “losers” – the one ..read more

When we experience rejection, sometimes it is based on something remiss in what we have done, but too often, it occurs because we do not conform to societal norms. However, we rarely get a direct and honest explanation for our rejection. When we are not conforming, many will feel threatened because the security of the social group, large or small, town or nation, is based on conforming to a certain way of living or a set of accepted beliefs. Each culture is like an enterprise, with everyone working for a particular objective. Different cultures have different objectives. Loyalty Is About Cult ..read more

We live in a world that focuses on the bad and seems to believe that ideas about badness are more real than ideas about goodness. This is a huge mistake and one that affects us in many negative ways. Once we rectify this mistake, we can feel freer and happier. So many people struggle to feel good about themselves. So many people fear being seen as inadequate, less than, and irrelevant. I once heard an accomplished and well-known art critic talk about how her biggest fear is being irrelevant despite being highly regarded. It is a mistake to treat the good in people, their talent, and their con ..read more

Let’s look at strokes. We train or condition people with strokes, which is a kind of energetic lobbying from those around us and which engages us at some level. When we are being stroked, we are being pushed in a particular direction or blocked from another. We are also encouraged to fear the consequences if we do not go along so that we will go along. Bullying works this way. Pleasant strokes come from acceptance, and unpleasant strokes signal a rejection of some kind. The human world is drowning in constant strokes of one kind or another through advertising, social media, and direct interac ..read more

The courage penalty created by hierarchical human social systems has made change difficult for thousands of years. It is important to note that nature does not have the same social system of preference. Although it has its own harshness, It is a shared system of aliveness, nourishment, and well-being. The human world does not seem to have the same felt commitment. We all come into this world thinking we are part of it, and too often, we slowly discover that we are not really. Our lives get pushed in directions that insert us into some slot not of our choosing to serve our society. The arrange ..read more

“My mother is driving me nuts again,” Carol tells me as we hike up to Grant Hill during one of our weekly hikes. Her comment is in response to my inquiry about how her week was going. The edge of her reply regarding her elderly mother gets my attention. Before I can say anything, Carol continues; “She never listens to anything I tell her. Everything is an argument; no matter what I say, it is always wrong in her eyes.” I’m surprised at the anger in her voice and look over at her as we cross the bridge spanning the creek just before starting the steep uphill Grant Hill is known for. “I hear ..read more

Have you noticed how much effort goes into suppressing the natural desire of people to live well, to be themselves, and to enjoy life? We are offered a world that generates a constant diet of trauma. We are being herded over and over again into a world that wants to keep us working and slaving for some kind of reward. We have been conditioned to reach for rewards that do not necessarily serve our interests. So many feel that their dreams are out of their reach. Do you ever wonder why that is? I have, and I have stuck with it as a question for a long time. I think that there can be one primary ..read more

What has happened to sharing? It seems we are all messed up on the topic. We have over-sharing, under-sharing, boundary violations that distort sharing, and all sorts of behavior that mucks up the possibilities of a natural way of community.  That may sound harsh; after all so many people get up every day despite all of our turmoil to do their part to make life work. We are lucky that so many people have such faith. It seems to me that we have left community to the individual. Community has developed in some places but in many others, not so much. As a result, many people feel like they ..read more