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Once Upon A Time
Everybody loves a narrative. We talk in terms of our life stories. Really, it’s a bunch of little stories all woven together. Some are long; they can span decades. Others last only moments. But every human interaction contains a narrative. It is what we seek and what mean when we say we’ve made a connection. We are so attuned to narratives that we search for them everywhere–saying “that cloud looks like an old woman with an umbrella” or “when she talks to me like that, I feel like a little child.” Everything is relative to the stories we tell ourselves and others. This picture we paint is also the basis of affinity groups. It is their common narrative that brings groups of people…
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Honest Maps
The last week of the year is like the free space on the bingo card of life. Often, we are out of our usual routine. Businesses keep special hours. Folks are traveling or shopping After-Christmas sales. Some use the beginning of the week to recover from a sugar cookie hangover only to exchange cookies for cocktails on New Years Eve. This change in our routine lends itself to some reflection on what we believe–a precursor to resolution setting. What we believe is important, because it is the basis of our actions. What we believe about ourselves is even more important. It informs every interaction we have. When what we believe about ourselves is not current, it’s like we are…
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Messengers
There are times when it seems old friends come out of the woodwork. Your paths cross for some mysterious, karmic reason, and it takes you back in time. Sometimes, it’s not an actual encounter at all–a glimpse of old photograph or a simple turn of phrase, and we become virtual time travelers. Instagram is full of the ubiquitous #TBT. (Does anyone even use hashtags anymore?) Facebook, too, incites rumination with its Year in Review and On This Date functionality. Whatever the trigger, rearview reflections are often useful in considering just how far we’ve come. Or maybe how much farther we’d like to go. At the beginning of 2015, I wrote three goals on my mirror. Run a marathon. Write a book.…
