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Those who comfort us
“Do not believe that the person who is trying to offer you solace lives his life effortlessly among the simple and quiet words that might occasionally comfort you. His life also is filled with much hardship and sadness….But if it were otherwise, he could never have found these words.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters on Life When we were kids, our parents and grandparents were the superheroes who chased monsters out of our closets and kept us safe. We didn’t realize, until we grew up, that our all-powerful folks were human beings who had their own worries and demons to battle. It’s tempting to assume that the people we always rely on…
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The United States of Gun Violence
“I want to live in a country where my presence is not seen by some as an existential threat….I want to walk past the school where my son will attend kindergarten next year and see a place that will keep him safe. But this is impossible. We live in a country that has failed us. Where legislation is written — and erased — by the gun lobby. Where manipulations and distortions of Second Amendment rights prevent politicians from enacting any semblance of sensible laws that would at least attempt to prevent this. Where claims about what our Founders wanted supersede the slaughter we see right in front of us….There is…
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The heart of the matter
“When you love someone, you love the whole person as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.” ~Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina Most of us idealized love when we were young. If we were raised on fairy tales, for instance, we imagined marrying the perfect partner and living happily ever after. At the same time, we also held our friends and family members to impossibly high standards, and were disappointed when they didn’t behave like the best friends or families portrayed on TV sitcoms. As we mature, we discover that real love isn’t always picture-perfect; sometimes it gets as messy or as complicated as real…
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“What to Remember when Waking”
“To become human is to become visible, while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others. To remember the other world in this world is to live in your true inheritance. You are not a troubled guest on this earth, you are not an accident amidst other accidents, you were invited from another and greater night than the one from which you have just emerged.” ~Devid Whyte, excerpted from “What to Remember when Waking” It’s been a while since I’ve shared poetry on this blog. This month, I’ve been rereading and savoring the work of Anglo-Irish poet David Whyte. He’s one of the contemporary poets I turn to when…
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Does magical thinking really work?
“I find that the harder I work, the more good fortune I seem to have.” ~Thomas Jefferson It’s so easy to blame “fate” (or a traumatic past) for the way things turn out for us. Year ago, I met a woman who avoided taking responsibility for herself, always waiting for “The Universe” to provide what she needed. She often used phrases such as, “If it’s meant to be, it will happen,” and usually failed to get what she needed. Magical thinking can be lots of fun, and yes, sometimes circumstances are beyond our control. But waiting for fate or unseen forces to intervene won’t accomplish the steps needed to help…
