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Gimme a C…or Two
“So I turned myself to face meBut I’ve never caught a glimpse”–David Bowie, Changes In the last month, I completed the final exam in a multi-part certification, a new school year started for the kids, and graduate school began for me. Add to that, the first week of the month I was on the road, and this week I learned of an unexpected job change. Changes. While some of these events were a surprise, most of them were planned, and I was challenged by a gauntlet of activity. Nothing unique here. Everyone is busy. The question is how to stay true to ourselves in the face of wearisome circumstances? There…
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Max’s Mad Lib
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. — Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata I have to admit, when I first read this sentence, I wasn’t really feeling it. Should we be enjoying our achievements more? Or our plans? Or is it the achievements for which we have planned? Or the plans that we’ve achieved? Max, Max, Max…what are you saying?!? Given his litany of directives about how to engage the world around us, I was a little surprised at the brevity of this installment’s statement. (The next sentence in the Desiderata may hint that he’s talking about vocation here, but that sentence actually stands alone as a fuller idea.) So,…
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Namaste
“As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.” — Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata The second half of this Ehrmann quote is one of those master of the obvious statements. Wanna be happy? Be on good terms with all persons. (Um, duh.) But working backwards, it gets more interesting. “As far as possible, without surrender…” The reference to surrender demonstrates the Ehrmann’s understanding of the human condition and the resulting truth that we will have conflict. People driven by fear, ego, and instincts that have over-rotated in their desire to be met will seek to dominate one another. Now and then, this warring nature manifests as…
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Fill the Pot
After the first of the year, it seemed that all water cooler conversations sunk into frustrations about having fallen away from routines. In truth, the lament isn’t actually the absence of a routine. It’s that we traded a habit of self-care for something else. It’s free weights swapped for flannel pajamas, cardio for hot cocoa, and regular rest for movie marathons. Any time we say we are out of our routine, what we are really saying is that we have let go some element of self-care that we had previously committed to. Regrettably, resuming a routine of self-care is always more difficult than moving away from it. (How is that…
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Taking Good Care
The change in the seasons has ushered in a round of colds in our house. Oddly, this time I started it. Patient zero. So begins all the things we do to take extra good care of ourselves…better sleep, healthier foods, and an abundance of vitamin C. The irony, of course, is that if I had been doing those things all along, I might not have gotten a cold in the first place, or in the very least, it wouldn’t have been as bad. Taking care of ourselves strengthens our immune systems. The same holds true for our emotional and spiritual selves. The principle of self-care building immunity transcends our physical wellbeing.…
