So, you might ask, how is "a climate so charged with disagreement" (as a friend described it this morning) helping make me a better person? Well, it's an answer eight years in the making. Eight years ago, after Barak Obama was elected President of the United State of America, I started receiving very critical, … Continue reading How politics and the Internet and Facebook are making me a better person (yes, really!)
Change
When I want to JUDGE someone or something . . .
I think I've confessed before that I'm pretty judgmental. I don't want to be. But too often I find myself judging someone or something. I've tried for years - perhaps decades - to stop that judging. I remember a specific instance from back when I was teaching high school. This was probably 20 years ago. It … Continue reading When I want to JUDGE someone or something . . .
Teaching Middle School, Week 8: Searching for My “Normal”
Whenever I go through something new and difficult, I find myself searching for what feels normal. "Normal" is the way life used to be before my change. And I'm always sure that the former "normal" is better than what I'm experiencing right now.
I’ve Changed! (from a dog person who loved teenagers to a cat person who prefers younger kids)
When I was a kid, I thought that once you got to be an adult you became the person you'd be the rest of your life, no matter how long you lived. And what I've discovered is that I couldn't have been MORE wrong! I wrote in this blog back in the spring that I … Continue reading I’ve Changed! (from a dog person who loved teenagers to a cat person who prefers younger kids)
I Want a “Future” Anchor
I realized that if I'm not looking forward to something, I get anxious.
All I have to say is Donald Trump, right?
I want to judge Donald Trump. But I also realize that in judging him, I judge myself
A 7 Year Cycle: Failure and Fear
About three months ago, I got the feeling I was completing a cycle. That something is finishing within me, that something is shifting, that I'm about to emerge into something new. I realized that it was seven years ago that I quit teaching and embarked on a new life. I also realized that I've read … Continue reading A 7 Year Cycle: Failure and Fear
Recurrence: Seeing my (seemingly) infinite loops
You know the feeling, like you were in the movie Groundhog Day - you run into the same situation over and over and over . . . . so many times that you thought you were in an infinite loop? I've felt like the Bill Murray character in many different areas of my life, ones in which … Continue reading Recurrence: Seeing my (seemingly) infinite loops
I really don’t like this truth. . . but I do want the freedom
Who wants to acknowledge her faults? Not me! "Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is … Continue reading I really don’t like this truth. . . but I do want the freedom
When Victimhood Feels Good
Sometimes I really enjoy righteous indignation and hurt feelings. I'm not proud to say that. But sometimes I do. I can actually enjoy the feeling that I've been wronged. I can roll it around in my mouth and savor it, enjoy the bitterness as I swallow it, enjoy the closing down of my heart, enjoy … Continue reading When Victimhood Feels Good
eddies and currents 