Music for Peace 


When we stop fearing our own inner lives we will stop fearing each other and will then be not only willing, but able to live together in a peaceful world.  Music is a universal language.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Today I sat down to write about the myth in the title of this post and in the process came across a delightful blog.  As I explore this world of blogging and social networking I’m discovering wonderful, intelligent, delightful, interesting people writing about wonderful intelligent, delightful, interesting things, and I’m so excited to be joining them both as a reader and participant.  I’m feeling happy right now.

Choosing Peace

Today is a day to remember to live a different life.  We create individually the lives we live by how we choose to experience whatever happens both internally and outside the self.  We create collectively the world we live in.  Today, let the legacy of those who died 10 years ago today be a legacy of peace, not a justification for more war.  Today, let us choose peace.

Gathering The Bones

Gathering the Bones

In her book, Women Who Run With The Wolves, Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells the story of La Loba, the bone gatherer, the old woman who gathers the bones of the wolf and when she has gathered each bone and the skeleton is complete, the wolf begins to flesh out and as it reclaims its life and moves out into the world it turns into a woman who runs free across the desert, her many colored hair flowing behind her.

Connecting With Spirit

There is a distinct difference in the flow of life when I’m connected with myself on a deep, creative level and when I’m not.  When I’m disconnected from myself I’m not paying attention so don’t make clear decisions based on my intuitive knowing.  I feel vulnerable when I’m disconnected, and in that vulnerability I become irritable, isolate, unconsciously eat to soothe myself, spend time with other disconnected, discontent people if I spend time with anyone.  None of this feeds my soul, to the contrary it takes me away from myself, my spirit, feeds instead the natural internal predator who loves it when I’m disconnected.

A Path With Heart

Exploring a new path is simple, though indeed not easy.  What is most important is not to be critical of ourselves when we're thrown off balance, rather to accept those moments as part of the journey and acknowledge the awareness that reminds us of our striving and allows us to continue to move forward.  When we sit in the quiet space within we remember that in creating space for listening, feelings may, in fact often do, arise that are simply body memories of the past.  When the present day self is willing to sit with the past and see it clearly from now, we drain it of its power and, in claiming that power today, free ourselves to live in truth, learning from what has come before rather than feeling trapped or stuck in a past that no longer exists.  

A Path With Heart

Exploring a new path is simple, though indeed not easy.  What is most important is not to be critical of ourselves when we're thrown off balance, rather to accept those moments as part of the journey and acknowledge the awareness that reminds us of our striving and allows us to continue to move forward.  When we sit in the quiet space within we remember that in creating space for listening, feelings may, in fact often do, arise that are simply body memories of the past.  When the present day self is willing to sit with the past and see it clearly from now, we drain it of its power and, in claiming that power today, free ourselves to live in truth, learning from what has come before rather than feeling trapped or stuck in a past that no longer exists.  

Listening Space

I began my struggle with food at age 29 when I became pregnant with my son, my second child.  I wanted another child and was unhappy in my marriage, so I made the choice to have a child and used food to bury the conflicting feelings.  I said it out loud at my then-sister-in-law’s apartment on Christmas Eve 1979.  “I’m eating for two now,” I heard myself say, as I popped another dunkin’ munchkin in my mouth.  I gained 60 pounds during that pregnancy and was shamed for the first time when, a month after my son was born, I met someone who had been in our childbirth preparation class with his wife and he asked me when I was due.  He was as mortified as I when I told him my son was a month old.  I was still wearing maternity clothes.

I lost that weight and more, reclaiming my slim self, but it was the beginning of an ongoing struggle in my relationship with food.  Today I'm choosing to awaken to the fact that, recently, I’ve been using food again to not feel my feelings.  As I sit in the dark, quiet pre-dawn of this Sunday morning I’ve decided to listen.  I hear myself guiding me as I guide my clients, deep inside to the place of spirit, the place in which I am most connected with my truth, to the wisdom and compassion of the universe as it moves through me.  I feel the pain of the loss of connection with deep experience and realize how efficiently food keeps me from that place within, from myself and the life I passionately want to create.  I am moved in the knowing that all I need do is be quiet, present, listen, to reconnect.  How clear and easy it is to be guided when I’m willing to be here.

This may sound hokey and new agey to some, and to those who are willing to slow down and wonder what it might be like to listen deeply, it’s a path with heart.  There is a space in which we connect with so much more than our immediate needs and wants, and we need to allow ourselves the time and quiet to enter that space to hear where we are and the steps we need to take to move to where we need to be, even when we don’t have a clear knowing of where that is.  

Namaste.

Sarah Palin and The Voices In Our Heads

Listening to the media hype about Sarah Palin this weekend, I’m aware of the lack of substance under all the noise.   There is something disturbing about the amount of money spent to feed one woman’s need for validation, when it could feed so many who are literally hungry.  But I digress.  What I find interesting are the similarities between the attention given to the vacuous voice of the woman who abandoned her job as governor to the people of Alaska, and the attention we often give the voices in our heads that, though they seem true because they’re familiar and loud, are in essence merely shadows of the past with no validity today but for that we give them through passive acceptance.  Just as it’s important to question political rhetoric, so is it vital to our being-ness today to question our internal rhetoric.

And Now I'm Here, or Let's Talk About Presence

Greetings and salutations!  Welcome if this is your first visit, welcome back and thanks for returning if you’ve been here before.  It’s been just over two weeks since my first blog post and I’m grateful for the wonderful feedback from colleagues, family, and friends, new and old.  What I’m discovering is that the most difficult aspect of writing a regular blog will be keeping it short enough that you’ll find time to read it.  Who would have thought the little girl who was afraid to speak would grow up to be a woman who is afraid people won’t have time to listen because she talks too much?!

I'm He-e-re!! or Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my blog, an adventure in being seen.

As a therapist I’m sometimes asked about my own life experience by potential or new clients.  Does she know what it’s like to be me?  To live like me?  To suffer or struggle like me?  Will she get me? Has she been in therapy herself?  No to the first three, I hope so to the next, yes to the last.  No one can know what it’s like to be you or live your unique life from your unique perspective.  I do know the common threads that weave through many of our lives.  I know the adaptations children make to their environment and the beliefs about self in the world that often develop in childhood and are carried unconsciously into adulthood, the pain of never being seen or acknowledged.  I’ve suffered abuse, loss, overcome fear, been angry alot, felt powerless alot, been confused, have had difficulty in relationships and experienced great love.  I also know that each of us already has everything we need to heal, grow and claim ourselves today.