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We are not "in love"... but, we are love. I'm glad, It lasts longer. Portia Nelson, There's a Hole in My Sidewalk Portia Nelson's book of poetry just got to me yesterday. The 35th edition, originally published in 1997. Though it's a classic, I have only ever read the opening poem, the most famous one in it - Autobiography in Five Short Chapters . It is used often in therapy groups including those recovering from addiction largely to teach mindfulness and help

“A ll pain deserves to be held in the warm embrace of compassion, so that healing can occur.” — Dr. Kristin Neff, renowned self-compassion researcher and practitioner In an earlier blog, I wrote about taking the U-turn — that sacred pause where we regain our center, get back to our "home," the seat of focus, attention, and intention (some call it our true Self or best self). The U-turn keeps us from spinning outward in blame or panic. But sometimes a pause, a breath or two,

“Your breathing is your greatest friend. Return to it in all your troubles and you will find comfort and guidance.” — Anthony de Mello. Indian Jesuit Priest, psychotherapist A friend and mentor, Dr. Frank Rogers, Jr. once told a story that is both sobering and, if we are honest, a little funny (It’s in his book, Practicing Compassion; I have his permission to share it with you . ). After 9/11, during the invasion of Iraq, a small Quaker group organized a silent peace vigil at

“When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope.” — Phil Connors in Groundhog Day Every February 2 nd , Groundhog Day, I think not of the weather prediction, but of the movie, Groundhog Day and it’s enduring message.  Of course, I get a big kick our of Bill Murray who is brilliant in the movie. Groundhog Day as a movie has a cult following which includes a past minister who watches the movie with her husband and friends every year. What m

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” — Martin Luther King Jr. We are living in a historic moment. Here in Wenatchee — and in many communities across the country — students recently walked out of school to protest the actions of ICE. Their courage moved me. Their moral seriousness stirred my admiration. And I worried. Not because their cause did not matter, but because whenever we step into charged situations, we must be prepared for what we

“Evil is something that ordinary people do, not something that only special people do.” — Roy Baumeister I want to begin with a story that has stayed with me for years because it unsettles a myth we like to believe about ourselves as people. A dear friend—an exceedingly good man and a trusted leader—once told me that he had been a participant in the obedience experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram. You’ve likely heard of these studies but hearing them through the voice of s

“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One of the most dangerous myths we carry is the belief that evil lives somewhere else—in other people, other nations, other eras of history. It is comforting, but it is not true. What social psychology, history, and lived experience tell us—again and again—is that the capacity for cruelty and the capacity for courage live side by side in all of us. Which one emerges often dep

“The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think.” —David Icke Early every Sunday morning, John and one of our...

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn. B. C. Forbes, Scottish-American...

Both Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King used these phrases ("playing out of one's mind," or "over one's head") to describe their...

Back home, I didn’t fit in. I thought Earth was the problem, but what if it’s me? – Elio Well, I like you and you seem fine to me. –...

“Imbalanced systems, whether internal or external, will tend to polarize.” ― Richard C. Schwartz, Internal Family Systems Therapy “Parts...

We have been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly just how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when...

"I think there's a natural goodness built into human beings. You know when you've stepped across the line into evil, and it's your life's...

Between stimulus and response there's a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and...

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.  Anaïs Nin About forty years ago I had a quick conversation with a friend.  He...

"The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones." Rick Hanson, Ph.D., neuropsychologist, author This blog...

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection…when...

I don't know who discovered water, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fish. Marshall McLuhan, writer My parents were concerned about...

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the...