"There is very little real liberty in the world; even those who seem freest are often the most tightly bound. Law, custom, public opinion, fear or shame make slaves of us all. - Louisa May Alcott. I was having a deep conversation with a friend over the weekend. We were
"Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything." - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel's Game. For some reason, humans seem to enjoy getting scared. I am pretty sure that as
Autonomy- the crazy idea that you get to choose what you want to do with your life. There is not one person who has ever lived who was 100% autonomous. Circumstances determine part of their story. Other people determine part of it. Chance determines quite a lot. But their decisions
"Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church, or robbing a bank, but never to being bores." — Elsa Maxwell Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Never be bored, and you will never be boring." I must say that I do not entirely agree with that
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." — Unknown. I have recently become interested in how food traditions evolve in a family setting. This has led me to wonder what traditions are, how they start, how they disappear, and why they matter. First of
“The first demand any work of any art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.” — C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism. Surrender means "to cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority." In this life, there
"The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion." - Nadia Boulanger. For several years now, I have been aware that I have made some poor choices in my life from time to time. Unfortunately, I continue to make them, and as I age, I find
"Everyone in your life will have a last day with you, and you don't even know when it'll be. " - unknown. I attended a funeral recently. It was nice, as far as funerals go, but I found out later that it was not carried out
"The ego is not who you really are. The ego is your self-image; it is your social mask; it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants control, and it is sustained by power, because it lives in fear."- Deepak Chopra.
"Take risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise." - unknown. I have worked a couple of different jobs that have revolved around creating security, and to do so, you must identify what risks are out there, how likely they are to
"Our motives for the things we do are where the sin is manifest." - Ezra Taft Benson. I was working on a project over the weekend that required me to lift and move a couple of heavy objects, so I needed some help. I found myself thinking about how
"Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan the flames." - Rumi. The air right now is filled with smoke from the many wildfires we have burning here in the West. The sunsets are redder, the scent of a campfire greets your nose when you walk outside, and
"My heart wants roots. My mind wants wings. I cannot bear their bickerings." — E.Y. Harburg. If there were a feeling assigned to the last decade, I think it would be frustration. Merriam-Webster defines frustration as "the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of
"Until death, all defeat is psychological." - attributed to Mandla The Great. What does it mean to be defeated? To be defeated is more than just losing; it is being overcome to the point where you are no longer able to complete a goal. It is being knocked out
"The rarest of all human qualities is consistency." - Jeremy Bentham. I have been accused (more than once) of not being able to stick with anything. I find this assessment to be accurate only part of the time (take this blog for example, over 70 weeks in a row
Looking back over some of my posts, I notice that I write often about living according to your values. I thought that maybe I should address one of the consequences that will happen to you if you choose to do so, and that is: you may be isolated. Solitude, isolation,
"Whatever you prioritize is your God." — Jordan B. Peterson I like to think that I have noble goals: being in great physical condition, eating homemade, healthful foods, spending my free time engaged in intellectual pursuits, and giving love and attention to my family, pets, plants, and nature. If
"Forgiveness has nothing to do with logic; it is the final breakdown of it. It is a mystical recognition that human evil is something we are all trapped by, suffering from, and participating in." - Father Richard Rohr. I must apologize for the shortness of this post, but I
"It's a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research and study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other." - Aldous Huxley. I have been in several situations over the last few months that began to darken my
"The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm." - Swedish Proverbs The idea for this post came to me this week while listening to the radio on my way home from work. A newsperson reported on a sign the county had
"I've found that if I pray for God to move a mountain, I must be prepared to wake up next to a shovel." - unknown. Constantly, we are trying to mitigate the damage that life might inflict upon us. Experience has shown that through preparedness, we can
"The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. I recently experienced a situation that made me feel ashamed that I had never experienced what it was like to shop in a bougie store, and
Taylor Swift said something that went viral a few months ago. It was something like "Treat your energy as though it were a luxury item." Basically saying to be selective about where you are spending it. This assumes that energy is a rare commodity, something that, once depleted,
Kahlil Gibran said, "Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it." And who can blame us? We stockpile food, worry over retirement accounts, and take our vitamins. We do everything that we possibly can to mitigate disaster. Many would argue