My latest post on Just a Backpack and a Rollie.  Beginner's mind all over again.  Adventures in learning the fine art of knitting and confronting my inner critic once again.http://www.justabackpackandarollie.wordpress.com

My latest post on Just a Backpack and a Rollie.  Beginner's mind all over again.  Adventures in learning the fine art of knitting and confronting my inner critic once again.http://www.justabackpackandarollie.wordpress.com

  Last night I received a message on Facebook from a woman I met a while ago.  I was a little surprised that someone would be sending their drama to everyone like that but I get it.    Woman scorned and duped...you're raging…

     I just watched Oprah`s…

…To find myself I have to lose my (what?) – my words? 

Yes, it’s true. To find and reconnect with your authentic self, all preconceived ideas (words) about who you are; all needs, expectations and identifications with who you want be, have to be suspended… held away long enough to breakthrough to the insight that expressed these longings.

Consider this for a moment: Your true self is not a person, a place out there… or a thing to go find. Your real self isn’t…

What is the number one stressor and complaint of people today? What do men and women most long for in their lives today?  I ask those interested in a personal retreat with me these questions -and more- as part of their retreat application… and here is what I almost always hear:

 “I just want to find myself; to reconnect with what really matters; to find self-love and unconditional forgiveness and love for my family and others; to live more authentically and to know inner…

The Leftovers

I accidentally got a book mailed to my old inner city school that they renovated and re-staffed, but I didn’t call to see if it was there or if anyone had picked it up.  That school was way on the eastside where no one could find it, off Eastern Avenue and towards Essex.  It was around the corner from the Eastpoint Mall where they had haunted houses every year and a new hibachi to-go grill restaurant.  It was two miles south of North Point Boulevard where if you…

The Leftovers

I accidentally got a book mailed to my old inner city school that they renovated and re-staffed, but I didn’t call to see if it was there or if anyone had picked it up.  That school was way on the eastside where no one could find it, off Eastern Avenue and towards Essex.  It was around the corner from the Eastpoint Mall where they had haunted houses every year and a new hibachi to-go grill restaurant.  It was two miles south of North Point Boulevard where if you…

Other than not having enough time, the inner critic is the #1 thing that holds most writers back from doing what they say they’re going to do, want to do, are capable of doing.

I love doing inner critic work with writers because it’s a place to turn something that’s weighing them down into something fun. I work with my clients to name their critics (yes, we all have many!) and describe what they look like. They’re he’s, she’s, and it’s; they’re smelly, huge, yellow, agitated,…

Vassilissa La Bella by Adrienne Segur

"The doll is the symbolic homunculi, little life. It is the symbol of what lies buried in humans that…

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh ~ W. H. Auden  

A few days ago I went to visit my ex-mother-in-law,…

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself. ~ Harvey S. Firestone

My first…

One would think that by the time we reach our fifties, our abilities and hidden talents would have already…

Many of us, myself included, have suffered through difficult childhoods.  It is with greater clarity that we are able to evaluate our past from an adult perspective.  Though we may be cognizant of the root of our pain, our childhood experiences were tightly woven into the cloth that made us who we are today; they are imbedded in the…

 “Coincidences are spiritual puns”~ G.K. Chesterton

We’ve all heard the common mantra, “There are no coincidences.”  Whether believer or skeptic, we have all experienced these fascinating and seemingly random occurrences in…

Excerpted from the memoir Fine…ly, “I believe that there are divine reasons for the pregnant pauses in our lives; the times when our life seems to come to a screeching halt and we are rendered powerless over it. Those are the times we should pay especially close attention, for those junctures may be the most profound times in our…

Many of the morals and principles that we live by throughout our life were ingrained in us by our parents when we were young.  Among other things, parents are largely responsible for building the character of their children.  They are our role models.  Children are sponges—they absorb all that they see, hear, and feel. …