I am constantly amazed by the depth of training provided by motherhood for seeking "enlightenment." By that I mean an expansion of consciousness where you transcend your 'self' as an independent entity and experience yourself as part of an existent whole. By analogy it would be like suddenly realizing you...

I have something in common with Michelle Obama, a brand new vegetable garden in my back yard. Mine was started by my 21 year old son, home from college where he is majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Horticulture. For his Senior Thesis, he designed a sustainable vegetable garden...

Whenever I am feeling a little out of sorts or a little frustrated in life, I turn to any book written by Alan Watts and I find that it inevitably cheers me up. He had an eloquent means of bringing to the fore the simplest explanations for the most complicated...

I'm embarrassed to say I read Louise Hay's "You can heal your life" at times when I have a stiff neck, lower back pain, or sinus flare-up. Her book is full of body to emotion relationships with positive affirmations offered as a means to counter what she considers the underlying...

The recent arrest of Philip Markoff, the accused Craigslist Killer, shakes us up because it is an example of a façade of normality covering an action of evil. It takes the idiom, 'you can't judge a book by its cover' to the extreme.

I wonder how, if the accusations...

How futile it is to rid oneself of the constant adjusting and re-adjusting of the relationship of I and AM, shortcut terms for our 'doing' self and our 'being' self. We spend our early years mustering the I to grow (our awareness of 'self' or 'I' emerges at about...

What if. Two words that may be a source of inspiration or desperation. 'What if' applied to the future may help us act toward a goal or create a paralysis of action. 'What if' applied to the past may highlight accomplishments or generate anxiety in the face of poor outcome....

I'm not a very tangential thinker -- as in, I am someone who sees 'the big picture' or cuts to the chase sooner rather than later. I do pick up tidbits of thought often idling along the side of a conversation and reflect on them later, but I tend...

"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again..."
~Simon and Garfunkel: The Sound of Silence)

I've heard the sound of silence loud and clear. It arises in the sounds of my house early in the morning before anyone awakens. I hear the hum of...

I've read how small car sales, including hybrids and Smart cars, are declining disproportionately to larger less fuel-efficient models in this economic downturn. As gas prices drop it seems so too go our good intentions to buy fuel-efficient vehicles to help others and the planet. As I filled my Smart...

We often forget the temporary nature of life soothed by an illusion of stability in our day-to-day routines, lulled into a false belief that we are somehow permanent. We are reminded of this temporary nature when untimely deaths occur, like that of Natasha Richardson or the less famous faces of...

I've been feeling 'lost' lately, in transition, and uncertain of my direction in life, a feeling as if I am standing on a microcosm of the earth's land plates, with my left foot on one and my right foot on another, not quite sure if they will move together or...

Yesterday was my birthday (February 18) and I am celebrating many joys - family, friends, but perhaps most importantly - me. At 54, I have come to enjoy my own company. I particularly enjoy my newfound patience in life. Perhaps my husband and kids don't see it as clearly as...

The other day at the end of a meeting, my colleague remarked how much I doodle - in the course of our conference call, I had 'defaced' a holiday card, an article we were reviewing, and created an entire landscape of doodles on miscellaneous papers lying nearby. I confessed that...

I spent Wednesday at the TED conference in Long Beach listening to inspiring, creative talks about 'doing' good in the world. The theme of most of these presentations is 'connection', multiple ways of showing that we share - via biology (genes), emotions, losses, loves, ecology - our humanity, that the...

I spent four days in D.C. at the inaugural activities last week. Overall everybody was extremely excited and full of enthusiasm, lots of smiling happy faces, lots of kindness prevailing in the air. But there were crowds and long lines to get into events; despite being full of enthusiastic people...

A few years ago I had an epiphany of sorts in which I experienced a radical shift in consciousness, an increased insight into our 'changing nature'. I realize that such dramatic jumps in awareness are rare among the thousands and thousands of mini-jumps we experience everyday. But it also...

My husband stopped in our hometown today in Indiana for a few days to visit his mom. She's 86 and still hard at work running their family business, a roller skating rink. My husband and his 11 brothers and sisters grew up skating and working 'the rink' (DJs, skate guards,...

It takes so much energy to feel the pain and suffering of our children, much more so than our own.

John and Kelly Travolta know this to the fullest extent possible - when a child dies. I see how hard it is with the minor struggles our children face...

New Years Day is just another of the multitude of new beginnings in life.

As 2009 begins, I am reminded of how many new beginnings we experience throughout our lives. Perhaps we all know that saying that every moment is a new beginning ('today is the first day of the...