Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
To contemplate is to look at shadows. – Victor Hugo A child, when first encountering its shadow, might at first feel fear. Later, she will experience fascination as she discovers that shadows stretch and play at her command. Carl Jung suggests that the shadow is representative of those parts of self that are suppressed and […]
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Life is full of irony, or so it feels when that is foremost on one’s mind. Here are just some of the ways that irony has played a role this week: Concerned that the hotel we were staying at was pet-friendly (and I am deadly allergic to cats), we made distancing ourselves from animals the […]
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Who is more stoic than the Great Blue, stealthily enduring rocks and rapids to catch the day’s meal? Appearances, however, have been known to deceive… seems this bird is no emotional void, no paragon of strength, but a closet thespian – caught him, mid rehearsal – aspiring to a phantom role – of the opera variety. (Written […]
Read MoreIs it just me, or is there irony in the idea of a museum of tolerance – as if the concept itself, now defunct, has been mummified for perusal? Life is full of ironies, and sometimes it takes an objective view to find them. As a kid, I found it ironic that my father would […]
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I turned to God when my foundation was shaking, only to find that God was shaking my foundation. – unknown I’ve carried this quotation with me since my early thirties, a time when the bottom fell out of my life and I fell into a deep abyss of depression and mental breakdown (or breakthrough, as […]
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Finding an outlet to express myself creatively (beyond writing) has been my biggest accomplishment this year. Picking up a camera and a paint brush both happened simultaneously, as our adventures across country begged recording. Converting image to art, via watercolours, has become my passion, although to date, I’ve only had a few lessons, and each […]
Read MoreI used to think that the relentless ache between my shoulder blades was from missing wings. We are meant to be angels on earth, I believed. And then, I forgot, so caught up in the details of life, consumed with ambition, and then facing the daily struggle of chronic illness. Until I saw this image. […]
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Choose the type of foundation to build. I want a foundation strong enough to carry me through hard times, yet flexible and able to adapt in the moment. Something sustaining, and solid, but not rigid. Set your footings 2 feet across. Two feet on the ground, firmly planted, well balanced, not alone, but interdependent, both partaking […]
Read More“What about my marriage?” a naive, much younger me once asked a psychic. “The foundation is firm,” the woman responded hesitantly, “but not without cracks.” Cracks? It was more like gaping holes. Easy to see now, in retrospect, but at the time, I was convinced we were rock solid. The suggestion of anything less insulted […]
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Inquiry is a trait teachers hope to instil in students – the ability to not just take for granted that which they have been taught, but the curiosity to question evidence, and to research beyond what is given. Questions form the basis of a reflective life. This week’s challenge was to think about the questions […]
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