Category: Featured

How to find Joy without getting stuck in the Pleasure Principle

Just Kidding. God help me, if my blog has come off like a “how-to,” then I missed the mark I was aiming for. Well sure, I play Dear Abby with my friends, when they ask for my opinion, and I ask them for theirs. This has rarely worked for me (probably them as well) because no one really knows what is best for someone else. Usually when I do take someone else’s advice it turns out wrong, and when I don’t, I look back in hindsight and say, “Shoulda listened to that one.” Two things came up that put me...

Scorn the Shame

I was so ashamed. No one was victimizing me, I just couldn’t do what I needed to do at that time. The reasons didn’t matter when the bar I set was beyond my reach. There was a simple solution but I couldn’t see it, behind the cloud of shame. I needed to reach out for help. In this case seeing beyond the fog included letting go of the pride that tries to hide the shame of failing. I must scorn the shame, becoming mindful that failure is not an end in itself if I can gain wisdom and act accordingly....

Hell on Earth

It is a piece of hell when innocents are gunned down, without a doubt. I’ve read many attempts at solutions and blame in the days since. Some maintain that it’s the access to automatic weapons, so we need to limit that access. Or, it’s the lack of access to mental health advocacy, so we need to increase that access. It’s the violence in media, so we need to decrease that violence. A friend in Africa laments that some lethal crimes are “fad-” oriented, which is horrifying, but possibly true as well. No real solutions there. That’s the thing that speaks...