today is the birthday of one of my favourite authors, mystery writer robert b. parker. i love his writing style (the influence of dashiell hammett, the grandfather of mystery novels, is clearly visible), i love his ideas, how he talks about boston. most of all, i love the mixture of simplicity and subtlety in his… Continue reading happy birthday, robert b. parker!
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depression: getting through the dark
the other day i looked over what some people with depression say about their experience. descriptions of numbness and emptiness outnumbered anything else by far. they talked of being in a dark place that made it impossible for them to feel anything, the kind of unmotivating emptiness that creates
what’s your ecological footprint?
in preparing for my last toastmasters speech, where i talked about why i walk and use public transit instead of owning a second car in our family, i came across an interesting site that
understanding “i don’t know” – part 4
how can we move out from under the helplessness of “i don’t know”? as i mentioned a few days ago, what is underneath “i don’t know” sometimes is a fear of knowledge, a fear of what might happen were we to become aware of knowledge that we have hidden away, or perhaps of the consequences… Continue reading understanding “i don’t know” – part 4
understanding “i don’t know” – part 3
the last two blog entries here were about how the words “i don’t know” often come from information overload, or, alternatively, from a certain anxiety around the emotionally laden information. today, let’s talk about how we can deal with this, how we can move from “i don’t know” to something like, “i have an idea”… Continue reading understanding “i don’t know” – part 3
understanding “i don’t know” – part 2
in my last blog entry i talked about how the words “i don’t know” often stem not from not-knowing, but from information overload. the knowledge gets buried in a mass of (often unpleasant) information. the second reason why we sometimes feel we don’t know the solution to our problems is because we might have a… Continue reading understanding “i don’t know” – part 2
understanding “i don’t know”
“i don’t know …” when we’re confronted with a difficult issue, we often come up with these words, “i don’t know”. “why do i always end up drinking more than i wanted? i just don’t know.” “i wish i could change how i talk to my son. we always seem to end up fighting. i… Continue reading understanding “i don’t know”
deceiving self and others: a poem
one of the things that came up in our fireside chat yesterday was self deception. i just stumbled across one of my poems that is somewhat a propos: the king and queen arriving without clothes, and we bow before them. arrived, we also have arrived, knowing the words that clothe them: “how beautiful her skirt!… Continue reading deceiving self and others: a poem
discussions: asking leading questions
as many of you know, (almost) every wednesday night i hold a fireside chat at sacred space. it’s a salon-type get-together where we sit in the living room area of sacred space, a beautiful store across from tinseltown in vancouver, and talk about – well, all kinds of things. today’s topic was supposed to be… Continue reading discussions: asking leading questions
getting out of the way
how do we stand in our own way? by standing around, doing nothing by criticizing ourselves by not being honest with ourselves by putting ourselves down by not following our ideas by refusing to budge from our old ways by pushing ourselves by not treating our bodies well enough by not treating ourselves as someone… Continue reading getting out of the way