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I usually enjoy the holidays. I get shopping done early so I don’t have to add that to the cooking, wrapping, togetherness, decorating, and reflection this time of year brings. But there was a time in my life when I dreaded the holidays. As a child, the holidays seemed to be a guarantee that things... Read More

Capacity 101 We overfill a water balloon, and it pops before we can deploy it. We exceed the capacity of a paper bag, and it tears open and spills our groceries on the ground before we can place items on our shelves. We ignore the damp place on that paper bag at our peril; that... Read More

The Power of Togetherness I had the pleasure of attending the Southwest Collaborative Music Convergence in Flagstaff on Labor Day weekend. I heard 12 people create a sound environment that brought moments of great beauty interspersed within an often strange environment of sounds evocative of a wide range of emotions, time, and space. All of... Read More

Help! We go through life relying on a variety of sources of trusted information and which sources we trust change over time. As small children, we rely on our parents and caregivers almost exclusively. Too soon, however, that trust gives way to what I consider a misguided struggle for autonomy. By misguided, I mean parents... Read More

We had to euthanize our sweet chocolate lab, Atlas, Monday. He was 15 and in lots of pain, barely able to walk, deaf, and almost blind. All of us attended the event at a local veterinary clinic. It was very gentle and respectful. Our 8 and 11 y/o girls weren’t sure they wanted to be... Read More

“We are not thinking machines, we are feeling machines that think.”  Antonio Damasio, MD, PhD in Descartes’ Error. We all come into the world with our unique temperament. Teachers have long understood that different children learn differently and respect these differences by giving students a variety of ways to express their understanding of concepts and... Read More

I’m a long time fan of The Ladies’ #1 Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It is set in Botswana and to read any book in this series feels like a brief vacation to an exotic locale every time. At the same time, the characters feel familiar and neighborly so it is a win-win. I... Read More

I’m going to make an argument and a challenge today. I’ve spent a lot of my career trying to teach people about what it takes to make changes to old patterns of behavior. I was doing the best I could with the information available to me. When I announced my intention to go into counseling,... Read More

I just got back from a rich cultural experience. I spent 4 days with 200 people at a summer camp facility in the Hill Country of Texas. Beautiful spot. Saw the Total Eclipse. I was there with an art collective dedicated to remembering what human connection and communication felt like before Wall Street and Hollywood... Read More

I’ve had a health scare recently and have noticed myself doing things about “the future”. Thinking this far ahead is new to me. I typically struggle to hold in mind the idea that there is a vacation scheduled 6 months from now. So, as I reflect on this, I’ve decided to simply embrace it and... Read More