Your perceptions are only shaped one way -- from inside of you to outside of you. Nothing or no one can make you feel a certain way -- not another person's behavior, your environment, or circumstances.

In this place, alone with my daughter Rachel, with a few simple things, walking and walking, it seems complete enough. Even the drama of death and divorce seem distant, part of the endless cycle of life, not something to dwell in, to linger on, but to face, absorb and pass on.

I believe that perfection is actually an illusion that we created and is based on the fear that we would no longer evolve as humans if something wasn't pushing us to be better. But what if evolution were to come from our desire to learn and grow instead of to get ahead?

Sudden, deep feelings are often teachers that we resist or turn away from, because of their intensity. Instead, we are often asked to enter these deep feelings, the way we might enter a field after a long walk through the woods.

How are we to understand a story like this? Does it tell us that acts of kindness and the gratitude they engender outlast decades and oceans and continents? Does it tell us that kindness, like the song of a red bird, will be answered long after the bird has died?

No one can be awake all the time. We sleep and wake and go back to sleep. We're clear, then confused, then wide-eyed again. We feel safe, then nervous, then at peace again. It makes being human a practice of return.

The stress and strains of our always-connected lives can sometimes take us off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance. ...

Intention has been a growing focus in my life this year and is a paramount theme for 2011.  And it's not just me -- the concept of living with intention seems to be popping up all around me.