With a Full Heart

Let me start out by speaking a truth—I love gifts, I love to buy them and I love to receive them. I select and give presents with sincerity and attention and I open packages with the enthusiasm of an energetic five-year-old. I have the blessing of being married to a man who is not only…

My dad and my brother would each have had a milestone birthday this month. Dad would have had a milestone over 100 and Norm would have hit a milestone right around retirement age. And only I am here to know that. How strange that feels. My dad was 48 when our parents married, 49 when…

There are so many times when anger and fear take the lead in our reaction to things. Both big picture, world events and things much more personal and closer to home, can trigger these emotions. We can find ourselves wishing ill towards others, we can find ourselves holding a hard knot of fury, so intense…

Political views are private matters in my world. Oh, I have my opinions and will express them, but I try, particularly professionally, to keep my views to myself. It’s been difficult to maintain that stance over the course of the last year, and during the last few weeks, but I continue to make the effort.…

Talking with a friend and colleague the other day and it came up that I am in the midst of another level of yoga teacher training, a 300 hour class. I was recounting, or maybe whining, about how much easier it seemed to be to do my 200 hour class. It was early 2021, we…

The truck stopped on the street and the handlers gently let a little pony out of the trailer in back. As the pony stood by obediently, clearly used to the process, the handlers decked it out with a red and gold robe around its neck and a beautiful gold band encircling its head. The center…

I have always known that I cannot be still, that I am always driven to move, to do, to be occupied with something, anything. I learned to cope with these traits a long time ago. I suspect that I was motivated, in all likelihood, by a teacher who dealt with my overly active behaviors by…

Recently, I heard someone talk about the concept of re-parenting themselves, working to connect with the child they had once been, and approaching that long ago child differently. Where there had been trauma or pain, the goal is to comfort and understand. Where there had been confusion and fear, the goal is to soothe and…

There are times, more times than I wish there were, when the only way I can describe how I feel is jangly. It’s as if all my nerve endings are jumping and I can’t settle. I repeat my oft-used mantra of sorts, “slow down, calm down” but the words are not enough to help me…

I have always preferred breakneck speed to slow and considered. Ready, fire, aim has, for good or for ill, been a hallmark of my personality and of my life. You can call it ADHD, as others have, or you can just do as I do, and accept it as who I am. My mother’s most…