Every January I act as the pronouncer for the Optimists’ Club’s spelling bee for local elementary and middle schools.  The Optimists’ Club’s celebrate 100 years this year. Recently I was invited to the local club’s celebratory dinner.  I sat next to the incoming West St. Paul president, a lovely man who shared his

A few weeks ago my friend Nea shared some thoughts about personal power in a live Facebook stream. One of the things she said (beautifully) was that we misunderstand what personal power really is.  We think that it means being active and decisive. It made me think about all the metaphors we have

Elephants brought up in captivity are sometimes tied to flimsy stakes in the ground.  They could easily escape because they are clearly stronger than their restraints.  Yet they don’t.  Why not?   When elephants are tiny and weak, some trainers tie them to these stakes.  The elephants never become aware that their growing

Have you ever fallen into a rut and felt unable to move from a position, place or way of thinking? (For those of us living in extended winter, sometimes the season feels like a rut!) More seriously, feeling stuck for a long time is one of the worst feelings. Here are a few

There have been four deaths within my world in the past couple of weeks. One was the death of my brother-in-law from cancer.  Hank was a retired medical doctor who specialized in wellness care.  Although we weren’t terribly close, I respected his work ethic and his wanting to reorient the medical world from

At the community discussion following the documentary The Foreigner’s Home about art and racism, a woman in my discussion group remarked that she had had an ‘aha’ moment.   She said it occurred to her for the first time that her hands-on healing practice was an art.   The definitions of health and

Happy 2019!   Resolutions usually take arise out of a desire to create a new, healthier habit or to release a destructive habit.   Rarely do they involve releasing something positive (but wearing out either physically or energetically) simply to create space.   And yet that’s a resolution with which I’m playing.  I’ve