Loss and significant change can have a big effect on your life, particularly when it involves significant bonds such as a partner, parent, child, sibling, even a close friend. It is important to address our human need for intimacy and connection that is triggered by loss. Otherwise, you can get you stuck. Stuck is […]
Humans need meaning and purpose. In addition to the needs we share with other animals — oxygen, water, food and shelter, and the needs we share with other social animals — connection, community, and affection (see my blog, Why We Need Community to Thrive), humans need meaning and purpose. We need to understand why we […]
Human beings are social animals. Community is the biological plan of our species. We need others to survive. This need for social connection and bonding continues throughout our lives. Community has a powerful influence over the way we think, behave and feel about our selves and those around us. This is particularly true when we […]
Valentine’s Day, with its focus on romantic love, can be challenging for those who have lost partners or other dear ones. Even when there is no special memory associated with the day, the promotional hype of the media can worm its way into one’s consciousness and intensify feelings of loss. Below are my 2 best […]
Barb, my mother-in-law, died last Friday. She has been declining for a long time so her death was not unanticipated, just a bit quicker than expected. Her death has given me another opportunity to explore grieving up close. My husband George flew off to Seattle the same day to view her body and pay his […]
How to invite more good luck into our lives is the subject of today’s blog. The St. Patrick’s Day shamrock reminds me of a four-leaf clover with it’s promise of luck. When I was a child, I used to search for this elusive plant in my parents’ front yard. It proved as difficult to […]
In February, on Valentine’s Day, we celebrate love and relationship. Humans Need Relationships We are biologically wired to love and bond. This is one of the reasons why the loss of a loved-one can be so challenging. A significant bond is broken and its replacement is not so easily achieved. Connecting and bonding begin from […]
August contains a powerful lesson in impermanence. Each year, school-aged children across the country foresee the ending of their summer vacation. It is a huge loss of freedom and play. This early conditioning of the school/summer cycle is so deeply etched in our psyches that as adults we still feel the loss, even if we […]
Almost every summer for the past 18 years, my husband and I have driven north to Oregon to spend time with his parents at their summer cabin. The cabin is remote, situated 4 miles down a dirt road, deep in a pine forest not far from the Deschutes River. It is so quiet you can […]
May is for Mother’s Day. Mother, mommy, mom. She is our first relationship in life. She carried us for 9 months inside her body. She birthed us, fed us, kept us warm and safe — to the extent that she was able. She also taught us about love, forgiveness and how to be. We have […]
