A couple groups of people (approximately 35 in all) in the Community for Change we have all been nurturing, gathered to explore what “Gratitude-meets-Process” looks like. These were some of the thoughts that I pulled from the discussions.
Read MoreTen years ago my Dad wrote me a twenty page handwritten, barely legible letter and sent it to me in El Salvador. His spelling sucked and he was far from perfect, but he sure knew how to love and he loved a lot of things and a lot of people in life very deeply.
Read MoreI LOVE this time of year - it's definitely my favorite season. For relatively small things that truly bring me great joy, here are a few:
Water bottle filling stations! Our office just had one installed and I couldn't be happier!
Fall hikes! Just begin out in nature, away from the rest of the world, on a crisp day surrounded by beautiful foliage! Maybe that's not small enough because it just gives me life!
Butternut squash & ginger soup. A chef friend makes a version of this that I have ineptly tried to replicate, but either way is SO AMAZING!
And lastly, at this particular time, the "small" thing that is truly rocking my world and has me overflowing with joy is the pending birth of my daughter - due on Halloween! Her imminent arrival is why I'll miss the gathering on 10/20.
- Richard Uniacke
Making Christmas plans with extended family brings me great joy, and I only start after the air turns cool and crisp. Of course, these plans are exceedingly complex now that there are multiple jobs, children, dietary restrictions, and in-laws to account for, but it's all part of the fun.
- Fay Sardjono
Our cat always prefers to spend the evening on my side of the bed, until I get into bed myself. While it drives me nuts during the summer months, his presence in the winter means that I get into bed with one area nicely heated.
- Ryan Oakes
Read MoreFor me, autumn is fire pit season. Marshmallows and/or a few drinks. Friends and family. We used to have it in our backyard, but a few years ago, we wondered if moving it to the front yard might not be a better idea. It’s created a not-so-beautiful circle on our front lawn where the grass doesn’t grow…but now, it’s 10 feet from the sidewalk. Neighbors walking together stop and chat. Kids on the block stop in for a marshmallow. We are certain we are depreciating the home value with the spectacle of it all, but the value added to our lives and block is worth the tradeoff.
-Tim Vogt
Read MoreI noticed my neighbor communing with his yard the other day. The simplicity in the brushes of his broom, and peace with the labor of lifting the leaves into piles inspired me. I told him so. And then I got to work on my own place.
My toil wasn’t terribly different. I went through the same process he did: lots of repetitive, but focused work. Almost a tunnel vision, as I kept my mind on my goal. I even mimicked his method of bagging, a novel style that was effective, to boot.
Read MoreLately, when people ask me how I am doing, I cannot answer “Good, how are you?”.
I am not sleeping. I have two little ones going through sleep regressions and health issues and challenges. I am running between their bedrooms and ours and usually by the time I go to lay down in our bed my heart is racing so bad that when I finally do wind down, one of the babies is up again. This is my story nearly every. single. night.
So, truth be told, I am not okay. I am so beyond tired. I am overwhelmed. I often don’t know where to start.
Read MoreIn recent months, I’ve spent most of my days living by my calendar appointments. 8AM? Make coffee. 9:15AM? Check in with my to-do list for the day. 1:00PM? Lunch. 2:00PM? Check back in with the calendar for the day. Weekends and evenings (FKA non-work hours) often get calendar events, too, whether for doing life chores or seeing friends. My past self (or someone from work) had made the decision that it was a good thing to schedule all these doings, so I went along with each one as it came up, more or less. And then, vacation happened. A chance for a break from my regimented routine. I thought, for fun, I would do my best to look at my watch and my calendar as little as possible during the week.
Read MoreWhen I'm able to, I love attending any performance at the Hollywood Bowl (open during the summer) in Los Angeles, my hometown. The first Sound of Music sing-along I attended there was one of the best days of my life to date (before I got married or had either of my children :)).
- Fay Sardjono
This happened twice over the past few days, so here’s my anti-pet peeve for the summer: getting mistakenly squirted with a water gun by a child on a hot day. At first you think “wait, who did that” but it immediately changes to “ah, that felt great” :)
- Ryan Oakes
Read MoreI came across this line, my own writing, from a couple years ago. Writing that I kept private, for fear of shame, guilt, permission. Maybe even actualization.
I look at these words now, from my then-future self, and realize how important it was for me to make the observation. To write those words. Then. Now. Every day.
….
“
I’ve gotten really good at being depressed.
I woke up this morning in an all-too familiar state: a blanket heavy with regrets weighing over me, the endless tail-chase of what I could have said and what would have been, playing on repeat in my mind.
Read MoreIt finally happened a couple weeks ago. My streak of 8 years of not being injured finally came to an end.
The first couple of days of managing my body’s recovery were the most challenging — lots of hopping, RICE, and moving carefully. An ankle sprain is maybe one of the better injuries to have, I think, if I had to choose. It forced me to slow down. “How ridiculous,” I thought as I replayed the incident over and over, “a yoga and meditation teacher getting injured as he’s racing his kids to school”. Sometimes I think the expected traits of the characters I assign to myself often move me farther away from them. But I hadn’t been keeping up with my morning meditation practice… so, in a strange way, maybe my ankle was helping me make up for that lost practice time by slowing me down.
Read MoreWe’re in this liminal period it seems. We’ve left something behind, but we’re not quite fully in the “something else”.
The world is opening up, but it still feels so closed.
We’re taking off our masks but keeping them on right now feels more important than ever.
We’re free to go back to work, but no one wants to go back to work.
We’re all ready for another “roaring 20s”, but it doesn’t feel right to roar at all right now.
What the hell?
The “re-opening” we were promised wasn’t this.
Read MoreI play a lot of racquet sports, more so in the last year thanks to COVID-19. Not just squash, which was off limits for about 6 months, but tennis, platform tennis and, most recently, pickleball (which is becoming hugely popular because it’s so easy to learn).
In my forever quest for improvement, I pay a lot of attention to my technique. I even got an inexpensive tripod recently and took some videos of my squash matches…and quickly had an existential crisis when I saw that my strokes don’t look like the pros’. So I fussed a bunch over my backswing, my follow-through, the position of my racquet.
Read MoreHere’s what hit me big lately.
Time for your Self matters. I separate “your Self” like that on purpose. Because it reminds me to think of Me. . .my true self. . . that version of me that feels strong and light and grounded and purposeful and powerful and. . . honestly, sometimes. . . just capable.
Because parenting, motherhood, and the early days post-birth with little ones has shaken me. There are days where I honestly feel like I just pretty much stink at everything.
Read MoreThree years ago, we did some work in the garden behind our house to address some drainage issues. This included moving a large, healthy green spire euonymus to an open corner to provide a bit of screening.
The gardener told us that the euonymus is a resilient plant and it would transplant well.
In the first year, it lost half of its leaves, and looked sickly all spring, summer and fall.
In the second year, it was shedding fewer leaves, but it still looked like it wasn’t going to make it.
And this spring, it’s turned the corner. It’s not as big as it used to be, but it’s clearly strong and healthy again, the leaves are a deep green and shiny, and the plant looks healthy. Here it is.
We often take “resilience” to mean that we will be unaffected by hard things, but that’s not how it works.
I attended a virtual conference a couple weeks ago. It was for work, so both my observer mind and participant mind were in attendance. As I was running down the list of sessions, figuring out which spoke to me, one leapt off the page. It was called “How Many Mondays?” I’m a big believer in trusting my gut when I feel big reactions like this (thanks theater and yoga training, and this awesome podcast with Rudy), so I made sure to put it on my calendar.
Read MoreI went for a walk on the beach early yesterday morning and it occurred to me that it was the day before the 5th anniversary of my dad’s passing.
And I started wondering what he was doing 5 years ago, the day before his death.
I wondered if there was any part of him, maybe an unconscious part of him... his soul, that knew that was his last day? I wondered if he was in a good mood that day? Was he noticeably happier or maybe more sad? Or was everything completely the same.
Did he have any unique thoughts or insights that day? Did he find anything strange or out of the ordinary? Were there any signs that death was near, that perhaps didn’t seem significant enough to voice?
I have to imagine that somehow our soul knows even when our mind does not.
Read MoreMy anti pet peeve: Looking at buildings and knowing that they can be carbon neutral … just with the right effort … seeing a city that is in tune with nature and not abusing nature. Or when a mosquito bites.. knowing that this is just part of nature… and not to be taken personal.:-)
- Matthias Hollwich
Read MoreI was lucky enough to escape to my favorite place in New England for a few weeks in March. I didn’t take time off from work, but I still treated it as a bit of a retreat. After a bit of a crazy winter in the city, I took time to do the things that fill my cup - like trail running, biking, and taking long long walks on the beach with my family and our dog - I also intentionally carved out some time to think about my future.
I’ve never been someone who could “picture” the future, like I feel like some people can. The pixels of what your life is like a year, 5 years, 10 years, 50 years down the road. My brain tends to work in concepts and feelings, not minute details and thinking many steps ahead. I hadn’t done an exercise like this since I graduated from college years ago now - I barely recognize the person I was then. It was time to revisit this exercise.
Read MoreLast week, I defied one of my self-portrait edicts of not letting disappointment linger. I was humbled by a two-dose disappointment case, disappointment in work and people. The definition of disappointment is “Sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one's hopes or expectations.” Were my hopes so high that guaranteed disappointment? I poured my heart and soul into the work, so why it was not received as I expected? And why my friend who I trusted as an ally turned out to be an antagonist? Lingering questions!
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