Broadening my focus

February 26, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

I was aiming for the bird, my fingers wrapped around the lens, ready to zoom in, when the scene spoke to me. “Sometimes”, I reminded myself, “you need to look at the larger picture.” The larger picture, in this case, was stunning, almost as if the sky had a message it didn’t want me to […]

Permission

February 5, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Wading through the muck of internalized blame, I stumble across a fault line, where the light breaks through. Old patterns are breaking up. My worth is not tied to how others feel, I realize. I am not the Queen of Everything. For the umpteenth time, I tell myself: I am enough. Permission granted to follow […]

Is It Too Late?

December 11, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I understand it’s not accessible to all. The message is: “When I was 9, I prayed to God that my life would not be too ‘normal’ or boring. Now that i’m 66, I wonder if it’s too late to take that back.”

Community

October 16, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I love my solitude. The silence of my alone time allows me to plunge into creativity. Some days I feel as if I might submerge and never reappear… I suspect I suffer from social anxiety, and when I am able to recognize it for what it is and step over the fear, I often discover […]

Limbo

August 14, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Waiting on the results of a biopsy, news comes of a relative’s death. A loved one struggles to make sense of the world crashing in around him. War continues and though I extend my hands to help, I am growing weary. Life is like this, I think. Just as we think we’ve found firm footing, […]

July 31, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

In my family of origin, the emphasis was on drama – who is doing what, and how they should change it. It was akin to a herd of cats all chasing each others tails. I understand now that this the dance of co-dependency. It’s a hard pattern to break free from. Bottomline is that I […]

Celebrate

July 10, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

It’s a month of birthdays here, so celebrations are in order. There is also something about the abundance of green and visiting wildlife that makes me feel celebratory. Hope you are feeling the spirit too.

Magic

July 3, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

My lens seeks the unexpected;magic startling the mundane. Photography teaches me to look again – change the angle of my focus, or reconsider the perspective. Through that one isolating lens, the world is made new. It’s been months since I’ve ventured out with my camera in tow. This post is a reminder to self to […]

Life Story

June 26, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

Can’t focus on what I’ll be remembered for tomorrow: too busy living my best self today. “The problem with you,” a friend once told me, “is that you lack commitment.” She was talking about a meditation group that I had organized and facilitated for eighteen months, until my third child was born. With three children […]

Mountain (tanka) Thoughts

June 12, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Ever the mountainPresence looming, commandingClimb! Climb! It beckons – My soul, magnetized, respondsPursuing new heights – compelled. When my mother lost her eyesight, I confessed that I would give up at that point, but here I am, into my second year of failing vision and still climbing. Oh, my loss is not as great as […]

Dear Child

I know a little girl,whose hair in ringletsfalls, unkempt from lackof brushing; who standswhen she should be sitting;who laughs with defiance whenchallenged, her dark eyes gleamingwith mischief; who holds her chin uphigh and stamps her feet, arms foldedin protest when she does not get her way. I see that little girl,have watched her play,with a […]

Re-de-fine-d

Ask me how I’m doingand I’ll say “fine”, notbecause I’m actually fine,but because “fine” is the onlysocially acceptable response. If I said that I have been lyinghere, for three hours now,willing my body to move,that would elicit unsolicitedadvice and tarnish my “fine”. I’d berate myself for breakingmy promise not to moan,knowing that complainingprovokes a compulsive […]