Notes on Non-Attachment
When a newborn is examined, the doctor will check the baby’s reflexes, including the grasp reflex. This is tested by stroking the baby’s palm. In response, the baby will close their little fingers in a grasp. Our natural state is to hang onto things. You may remember my post on holding lightly, something I wrote […]
Notes on Mourning
As I write this, Tom and his crew from T & J’s Excavating are taking down half a dozen oak trees that were uprooted or otherwise destroyed during several recent storms. The chainsaw sounds like a dentist’s drill, we can feel the earth shaking when an enormous bough or trunk comes plummeting to the earth. […]
4 Lessons from Three Blue Men & a Band
If you’ve never seen them, it’s a little hard to imagine how powerful three blue men and a band can be. A couple of weeks ago, my family and I went to a local performance of Blue Man Group. Over 90 minutes of lights, percussion, and wholehearted participation. Here’s what I took away… Communication is […]
Notes on Gratitude
Gratitude, indeed Gratitude, like other positive emotions, can serve as an antidote to despair, unforgiveness, grief, and other difficult (and important) emotions. With my family, my patients, and my clients (not to mention myself), I encourage the positive emotion of gratitude. Felt deeply and genuinely, gratitude can be remarkably healing. Most of us have heard […]
A Tree Crashed in the Woods…
The Setting It was past 11 pm. Things were winding down in the house, the news a low murmur, the sky a deep purple, rain tapering off to large, infrequent drops at the end of a heavy downpour. Then the power went out. More abruptly than it usually does…none of those warning flickers that let […]
Becoming
What if we consider transformation as a process that can honor both the stories we tell about ourselves as we are right now and can help us dream and consider what is possible?
Our emotional life
As an oncologist, I am no stranger to being yanked around by my emotions. In one day of seeing patients, I can feel the profound sadness of losing a patient with young children, the relief when another patient finally has a response to treatment and easing of pain, the joy shared with another when we […]
Hold lightly…
Last Saturday, my husband and our two daughters enjoyed dinner together. Everyone had enough. Enough food, enough time to talk, enough love. No one was snippy, and laughter was abundant. Somehow the dishes were done without anyone having been asked. I have been learning to hold lightly my expectations. Expectations about how the meal should […]