Blog Posts

Last week’s meditation on commonly confused word pairs opened up one of the rabbit holes which I love to jump down and meander through. Much of what occurs in these quagmires is of little interest to anyone else (especially those with solid mental health), but every now and then I stumble upon (in my opinion) a shareable nugget. This week, in keeping with the theme of confusion, I investigated the fertile ground of my evolving self-image. And I realized that, throughout my li

In my indiscriminate and nearly ceaseless reading, I recently came across something that perfectly articulated my evolving understanding of a concept. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist was that self-care is doing things you don’t necessarily want to do that will enhance your life in the long run (for example, swallowing the vitamins, stretching every morning upon waking, meditating, consuming wisely, physically and otherwise, taking sleep seriously), and the stuff that is instan

In the early days of my third act, the epiphanies were arriving fast and furiously (I wrote about that here). Now, years later, they’re fewer and further between. This week, though, brought a jackpot of insight. My dreams, my unconscious, and serendipity all conspired to present me with two major, mind-altering nuggets. Disconnection was on my mind. Continued radio silence from the former lover I expected to remain in my life. A sudden, bewildering friendship breakup. A parti

I talked a while back about my well-developed ability to pivot, and this week provided a refresher course for both me and the CWP. When a badly sprained foot (pro tip: if you can, take a moment to become fully conscious before responding to a fire alarm) was added to her challenges, we decided to move her to my house temporarily for some rest and TLC. It was a bitter pill for her, who had just the week before taken the proverbial step forward. I watched her vent a little and

Maybe because I’ve been tamping down my horror and apoplexy at the state of our country for so long (lest I start screaming and never stop), I’m finding myself much more irritable about what I consider first world problems lately. Things came to a head this week when one of my accounts was hacked, resulting in multiple payment methods being compromised and untold hours of harrowing efforts at remediation. Once the dust settled a bit (I’ll be sweeping up for weeks, I’m afraid)

Last month I started a new practice. What began as a result of rediscovering my treasure trove of “someday” collage components (words and images I’d spent peaceful hours cutting from old magazines and books) after a bout of quieting has been almost miraculously transformational. And it couldn’t be simpler. Having also found a small Moleskine notebook during my reorganizing binge, I felt suddenly compelled to use it, and decided that I would start each session in my Creatorium

I’ve mentioned Suleika Jaouad several times previously and can’t recommend her Substack (Suleika Jaouad | Substack) or her books highly enough. Each week I’m inspired anew by both her fortitude and her creativity. Something she shared a few weeks ago has not left me; she made a list titled “Things I Keep Wanting and Not Doing”. Not things she’d once wanted and no longer did, but things she thought would be nice, but she hadn’t yet done. She shared that “proximity is a kind of

Me searching for a shred of remaining civility This week, as part of my unremitting quest to dig a bit of joy out of this increasingly desolate hellscape, I treated myself, among other things, to a bestselling book and a blockbuster movie. Both did the trick: providing an escape from reality, enjoyable craftsmanship, and a bit of food for thought. And then I stumbled across the discourse surrounding both (side note: maybe I need to limit my social media consumption even more