This is a time of collective reckoning, a time when those not part of the essential work force have been sent to their rooms, a time when we, as a nation, are called to reckon with the roots of this ever diminishing democracy having been built on stolen land from Indigenous peoples and constructed through 246 years of free labor of enslaved black bodied peoples.*
Read MoreWe all know that things come up for each of us during the holiday season. It’s not even always a difficult or negative thing.
I recently sat with a new client and she was telling me how much she was looking forward to the holidays because it’s always great when everyone gets together in the family home back in the snowy Midwest and they light the fire, sing songs, catch up and eat great food.
Read MoreIt may be hard to imagine that grief could be a gift, but imagine what it might be like to not be able to grieve. Maybe you don’t have to imagine so hard, though. We are surrounded and bombarded in our culture by ways to distract ourselves from what we feel and experience and to have alternatives to allowing ourselves to be permeated by pain and really take it in.
The easy way out of grief is to harden our hearts and turn the pain of our loss and fear of our vulnerability into rage and project it externally into some imagined perpetrator. Wars are waged, families broken, relationships shattered, people isolated when the mind tightens into a story and defends against the broken heart.
Read MoreNo doubt about it, we are living in “interesting” times.
As I write this, California has historic fires raging, making claim to hundreds of thousands of acres of land, taking human and nonhuman lives and destroying homes, businesses, livelihoods and, of course, our beautiful landscape.
As I write this, children are still waiting to be reunited with their families after detentions at the borders of this country, their parents fleeing harm and hoping for a safe landing and a future that could offer sustenance and growth.
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