The poet Mary Oliver posed the provocative question: What are you going to do with your wild and precious life? We discussed this at length this week on the Open Deep and True – Basic Course training call. We talked a lot about life purpose and the whole concept of having a gift or a calling in life. It was tremendously… Read more →
Feel these two different kinds of stress. See if they have distinctive flavors for you. The first I call captive stress. This is the stress that comes from: procrastination. paralyses by analysis, to do list growing instead of getting done, waiting to be “ready” or for circumstances to be better before taking action This flavor of stress comes with a… Read more →
There are two sides to most things. A rainy day is a bad thing for a 11 year old looking forward to a little league game, and a great thing for a farmer dealing with a drought. And then there are things like kindness, compassion, and love. These things, in and of themselves, have no down side. And then there… Read more →
Is the world a scary place? Or a blank canvas to create a life of amazing possibilities? There are almost as many shades of these outlooks as there are people. And at the extremes it seems that the perspective has been dictated by circumstances. We would truly understand if a person in war torn Syria thought that the world was… Read more →
Yesterday I had lunch with a friend and we talked about Vision Quests. Vision Quests are rituals in which people go out into nature (usually alone) for a period of time. The belief is that as we quiet our surroundings and turn off the daily routine, we can receive answers and insights that will provide us with new clarity in… Read more →
I am a Men’s Coach. I have been trained as a healer, a counselor, and a consultant. But I call myself a Men’s Coach. I made this choice believing that most men would prefer to be coached rather than healed or counseled. This week I had a long talk with an old friend that has me taking a hard look… Read more →
There is a huge outcry in the country this week about the Zimmerman verdict. I did not follow it very closely. I do have an opinion about how it turned out. I am not going to give that opinion. Why? Exactly…. Why? What does my opinion matter on this case? Especially my opinion in a very granular way. As in:… Read more →
I often hear people say “Oh, so and so is doing really well,” when they are describing another man. And almost always they are talking about the man’s financial situation or job status. Doctors, pro athletes, lawyers and high flying entrepreneurs are usually the ones who are “doing really well.” To many men in today’s world, success has come to… Read more →
Happy 4th of July! Today we celebrate gaining our independence from England 237 years ago. The day is filled with fireworks, hotdog eating contests and red, white and blue as far as the eye can see. We sing songs about this great nation and bath in nationalistic nostalgia. It is fantastic. We are a great nation and who doesn’t love… Read more →
Lets look at a quote from our president before he was elected: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” –Barack Obama What do you think of it? In retrospect? Here is what I think of it. It… Read more →