A favorite Zen parable…
The apprentice was always complaining and his aging Hindu master grew tired of his complaints. So one morning he sent the apprentice to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. “How does […]
Will you say yes or no?
According to Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do.” More directly, we are what we say yes to. Every second of every day, we are saying yes to something. Every time we do something, we say yes to that thing. Every time we hop on Facebook and begin scrolling, we’re saying yes. Every piece of […]
The power of your word…
Remember the old saying about “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? We do know that it is not true, don’t we..? We all have been hurt by the words of others, be they parents, partners, teachers, bosses, friends. And we all have hurt someone else, even our loved […]
Love the sun!
Summer has arrived, and to me this is a time of celebrating Life! Recent graduates are beginning their new lives and we’ve just recently experienced the summer solstice. (And it’s not yet too hot as we revel in the current warmth and sunshine.) I remember reading an article that talked about the power of one […]
He said what..?
If you know who Lao Tzu is, then you’ll recognize some of these quotes. Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher and author of the famous book, The Tao Te Ching, about living aligned with simplicity, patience, and compassion. Here are some more of my favorite quotes. They give me food for thought! I’d be […]
Life is like Monopoly
Even the way we play the game Monopoly could be symbolic of life. First of all, we are going around a board. So…basically going around in circles. Life is a cycle. And the most powerful move in Monopoly/life isn’t mentioned in the rulebook. It’s the moment we realize it’s all just a game! the money’s […]
Do you coddiwomple?
I thought this was one of those words used long ago in Ireland or Scotland. Nope, this word is modern English slang. I love it! (even though as a previous English teacher, I think I should have know it !) What triggered this post was a friend who posted on Facebook a delightful explanation of […]
They said what?!
If you’ve ever had a car accident and then tried to describe it in as few words as possible for the insurance forms, you’ll appreciate the following descriptions as they appeared in the Toronto Sun! “An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished.” “Coming home, I drove into the wrong house […]
How you do anything…
It all matters! It’s about acting in alignment with our values and beliefs, whether in the “important” or the “unimportant” things, whether unprepared or uncomfortable. Everything we do is practice for who we are becoming. We are not the product of our dreams, our desires, our potential or what we could be someday, somehow, in […]
Do less, better…
In this age of information abundance and overload, we need to figure out what to leave out so we can concentrate on what’s really important to us. We’re so focused on doing more stuff that we lose sight of what’s really important. We could place some constraints on ourselves. It may seem contradictory, but when […]