I will never forget the first time I heard the music from the Pure Moods album in the early 90s. I was a tweeny and my parents brought home a copy of the CD. I clearly remember dancing around the living room while listening to it. I needed to move my body in order to…
Tag: stress management
The Marine Corps motto is ‘Semper Fidelis’ – Always Faithful. For those of us who served in the Corps, there’s another motto we heard regularly as well: ‘Semper Gumby.’ This amusing saying means ‘Always Flexible.’ I’ve been thinking about it a fair bit as the latest pendulum swing of the pandemic knocks over various events,…
Some days, there’s just not enough coffee in the universe to get me going. During most of the year, doldrum days are pretty rare for me. I generally have good forward momentum: I have dreams and visions I’m trying to manifest, sacred Work I’m focused on, and a beloved community to serve. For some…
If it seems like the people around you are more volatile than usual, you’re not alone. Over the past month I’ve stood on the sidelines as multiple relationships around me caught fire in various ways. The stress of over a year’s worth of pandemic concerns and the whiplash of relief to restriction is applying pressure…
This time was serious. I’d been hauled into Top’s office first thing in the morning, and my Staff Sergeant’s face looked thunderous. My Master Sergeant, Top, was furious of course. But also, oddly, concerned. “Why are you always so angry? Do you even know?” Top loomed over me. He was Nordic – tall and pale,…
I find myself repeating a few different themes throughout my work and teachings. Know who you are. Know what you want. If you have those two things, or either of them, at least partially figured out, you’ll weather everything better. And that’s important. Because here we go again. The tide is starting to turn. The…
One of the memes floating around right now talks about the difference between nice and kind, and the way people can be one but not the other. It relates those concepts to different regions of the United States. That meme generates a chuckle for me since the east coast is associated with being kind but…
Many years ago, I was introduced to the idea of selecting a single word for each calendar year to act as an intention, touchstone, and big-picture goal. The beauty of a single word intention is that the simplicity means multiple ways of connecting are possible. For example, one of my words over the years was…
When I was a kid, I spent many of my summers attending YMCA Day Camp programs. I grew up in Frederick, MD, and the region is blessed with abundant parks and forests. For each session of summer camp I attended, I had a buddy assigned to me. One of the camp field trips I went…
I don’t mean to go all Ned Stark on everyone, but…well… In years without a pandemic, we would be preparing for the last of the harvest celebrations and planning the journey of the inward spiral: the time of turning within for healing, nurturing, and personal growth. This year, of course, is different. Many of my…