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Posts in category Personal Cultivation

learning to walk

Here are a few things: Pain, especially chronic pain, has a lot to teach us.  It is an opportunity for us to gain some deeper insights into why we have the health concerns we do, examine how our beliefs, habits and lifestyle choices affect us.  This can lead to a level of discovery and healing […]

what’s the point?

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s almost 2 years ago, and since then, she and her (amazing) husband, Mike, have moved back to California to live with my (amazing) brother, Dave.  That move to California when so much is confusing to her was just so like her – to grab an adventure when she can.   […]

how am i supposed to understand this?

Today is the three year anniversary of Sandy Hook, an event that has become as evocative as Wounded Knee, as Ruwanda, as 9/11, as every other event where innocents are slaughtered for reasons I cannot comprehend. Today I watched a video of a choir singing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ that closed with the voice of the […]

warrior – you need me

I’ve been struggling to resolve an increasing polarization within myself. It’s a reflection of the world around me, which isn’t a surprise. On one end is the desire to take up a weapon to protect myself and loved ones, and to punish those who want to kill that which is precious.  This end sees the […]

choose the open heart way

It seems really hard to me, this one. There are so many things that I feel should be condemned – terrorism, poverty, illness. (And don’t get me started on insurance companies.) And yet I know that lingering on things that have negative or disgusting or abhorrent vibes simply sends more energy to those things. Then […]

think positive… or not?

Positive thinking, the power (or law) of attraction, stay on the sunny side – this has all been in the culture for a while now, and the push-back is starting to get some traction.  Being ‘realistic’ is the new thing, and I have some thoughts about this. Firstly, the Law of Attraction et al is […]

between heaven and earth

Back when I was training to become an acupuncturist, I discovered something really cool.  To help you understand the total cool-ness, you have to first picture this. We’d started our clinical work.  This meant we were going to start to implement what we’d been studying – and boy, didn’t that just feel … inadequate.  We’d […]

just … do it

There is a great, well, need from the people in our community to help those who are struggling with addictions of all sorts, and it seems like things progress like this: Awareness of the need – as addiction to pain meds and then to heroin is expanding into white, middle-class communities, more people are seeing […]

why don’t I get better?

This blog is one of those ‘please bear with me while I sort this out for myself’ blogs, because it applies to me as an individual (why don’t I get better).  It may also answer a question I’ve had as a practitioner, to wit: you stand in front of me and tell me you need […]

Desiderata, a Spiritual Poem

I have not read this since I was a teenager; in fact, I haven’t even seen it since then.  I didn’t know it was written by American poet Max Ehrmann, in 1927, another time when the world was dancing as fast as it could.  It feels more right now than it did when I first […]