Nike’s tagline of Just Do It has entered our everyday language for a good reason. We can never accomplish anything by only thinking about, by …
Your Baggage is the Gateway to Your Superpower
The Muses have been full of contrarian perspectives lately, but maybe that’s what muses do – shake up our complacency to reveal things hidden in …
The Magic of New Perspectives
The magic is all around us, every minute of every day. The trick is in seeing it. 2019 has been a doozy of a year …
The Risk You Are Afraid to Take
Fear has been a constant companion for much of my life. It started in childhood with parents caught up in their own struggles. There was …
Finding the Quiet in the Frenzy of December – A Ritual for Year End
In the frenzy of December is a place of deep quiet if we are willing to go there. In that quiet, filters and shields can …
All the Versions of You that Have Not Fit – Embracing Imposter Syndrome
There’s a gap between who we want to be and what we want to do. Inside that gap is a thousand versions of ourselves that …
Self Care and Belonging – Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart
“All too often our so-called strength comes from fear, not love; instead of having a strong back, many of us have a defended front shielding …
It’s Hard to Hate People Close Up
It’s easy to hate people when we depersonalize them and keep them at arm’s length. But when we get to know them, when their troubles …
Holding Hands with Strangers
When we are in crisis… when we are feeling utterly lost and tested… when life feels like it’s crashing all around us… we still have …
Speak Truth to Lies (Be Civil)
According to Carl Jung, paradox is essential for understanding. How would we know hot without cold? How would we know up without down? How would …
Where Are You Hiding?
Is your sense of belonging dependent upon feeling in control? When her husband offered her the trip she had longed for, instead of getting excited, …
True Belonging
True belonging. Those words conjure up a very specific picture for me as a recovering fitting-in person. Striving to fit in had only created a …
Are You Showing Up as Your True Self?
Most of my career was spent in a world dominated by men, tough men, primarily engineering types. I’m a smallish woman who danced ballet, played …
Never Underestimate the Power of Being Seen
In Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown speaks candidly and transparently about using self-destructive behaviors to soothe the lack of belonging she so keenly felt. She …
Becoming a Memory Guardian
We recently sold our childhood home. As I stood in front of it for the last time that it was still part of our family, …
What Does “Belonging” Mean to You?
What does “belonging” mean to you? The dictionary defines it as being a member or part of a particular group, organization, or class. As children, …
Braving the Wilderness – The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
I’ve been reading Braving the Wilderness – The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, the newest book from social scientist Brené …
My Word of the Year (Watchword) for 2018 is Self-Care. What’s Yours”
My personal word of the Year (Watchword) for 2018 is Self-Care. But not the chocolate and bubble bath variety that seems to pop up everywhere. …
Why This Agnostic Looks Forward to Putting Out the Christmas Creche
(originally written at the beginning of Advent in 1998, updated in November 2017) Although I’m agnostic, every Christmas season as our children were growing up …
The Case for Spoiling Our Four-Legged Friends – Soulmate Pets
When Steve and I first met, I was owned by a rescue kitty named Callie Mae who had come into my life as a hostess …