five haikus

i haven’t posted a poem for quite a while. so here we have, today, a serving of five haikus! immense yellow ball rolling up the horizon: sweet buttery light.

15 years, 15 stories, 6 words

fifteen really short stories that have crossed my path in fifteen years of counselling: depressed, manic. manic, depressed. depressed, manic. marry you? you gotta be kidding. have anxiety, will not travel. help! too thin. better eat. that’s hard. “can’t think straight.” “relax.” “oh, wow!” booze, cocaine and

orchestrating attention

how does attention work? how does attention improve perception? ken paller and colleagues from northwestern university conducted a study to shed some light on this mystery: You know the sensation. When something has your full attention you see it vividly. And when you don’t pay attention, you’re liable to miss something important. … The mystery… Continue reading orchestrating attention

journaling for healing: 15 tips

anyone who uses writing for therapeutic purposes should read louise de salvo’s writing as a way of healing. quite a bit of what she writes is based on james w. pennebaker’s research on writing and health (do go to his web site, he has all kinds of neat little tests on it). one of the… Continue reading journaling for healing: 15 tips

enlightenment with dr. seuss

let’s have some more dr. seuss. this is from the grinch who stole christmas. grouchy, grumpy, mean, bitter grinch has just stolen all the christmas gifts from the people in who-ville, pretended to be a nice guy by giving little cindy-lou who a glass of water, taken the last little crumb out of cindy-lou’s pantry… Continue reading enlightenment with dr. seuss

what is an artist?

who is an artist? that was a question posed yesterday. here’s my working definition for today: an artist is someone who repeatedly and over extended periods of time expresses her or his experience, knowledge, talent, skill or other internal processes to design unique objects, processes or points of view. most artists are internally driven to… Continue reading what is an artist?

the 10 paradoxes of creative people

pre-eminent psychologist mihaly cziszentmihalyi about the ten paradoxes of creative people. here’s an abbreviated version: 1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest. … One manifestation of energy is sexuality. Creative people are paradoxical in this respect also. They seem to have quite a strong… Continue reading the 10 paradoxes of creative people