Self-esteem is really the accumulation of beliefs that we have collected about ourselves.  We arrange these many beliefs in some sort of composite much like a tile mosaic.  Each piece is some shard taken from some experience or encounter or event or circumstance that has come our way at some time in our lives.  These many pieces are selected based … [Read more...]

Fear – How We Create It Fear.  We all have it.  Sometimes it’s just this slight apprehension, or this bit of inner angst, or this uncomfortable twinge that we experience.  At other times it’s utterly overwhelming, leaving us helplessly paralyzed and violently shaken right down to the core of everything that we are.  At certain times and in … [Read more...]

We all create expectations.  But how often are our expectations a wholesale surrendering of ‘what could be’ to ‘what is?’  How often are they borne of a discouraged soul and a frightened heart that cannot see beyond the realities of the moment so as to envision a brighter reality standing at-the-ready in the next moment?  How many times have we … [Read more...]

Endings can be incapacitating and painful for a variety of reasons, most of which we never identify because we’re too caught up in the loss to see anything but the loss.  We don’t really identify what we’re actually doing with whatever the ending is, or what the ending is actually doing to us because we’re too lost in the loss to even begin to … [Read more...]

  We all have a limp that relentlessly dogs our steps, causing us at times to be dog-tired as we work against our limp in order to keep our lives sufficiently erect.  For some of us, our limp is so slight and relatively minor that it’s really quite difficult to detect.  For others of us it’s blatantly obvious, causing us to lurch through … [Read more...]

The majesty of our humanity and the capabilities laid out within us are nothing short of marvelous; so much so that we are barely cognizant of it.  All of us run thick with untapped potential.  We are rich with possibility and formidably equipped to tease the cusp of the impossible and to overcome it in the teasing.  The essence of our being is … [Read more...]

Thanksgiving is an incredibly rich time.  It affords us the opportunity to reflect on the transformational power that an attitude of thanksgiving delivers into our lives.  It likewise prompts us to move away from all lesser tendencies that tend to woo us and instead embrace this vitally important attitude. As a ‘thank you’ to my readers, I’ve … [Read more...]

Being thankful is a nice idea and something that we’re supposed to do.  There’s something right and proper and good about it.  But sometimes in the rush of life we don’t feel we have time to be thankful, or that our situation isn’t really something to be thankful about.  Life sometimes is more about survival and less about anything else.  So there … [Read more...]

Am I paying attention?  As this thing called life moves ‘round about me, and I move ‘round about within it, am I paying attention to it all?  Am I paying attention, or have I unwittingly confused a host of other behaviors and habits as paying attention?  Am I paying attention, or have I adopted certain views or biases as ready templates that I slap … [Read more...]

Did you ever have one of those surreal moments when it seems like something snaps in your head and suddenly you see everything like you never saw it before?  A lot of things can trigger these moments . . . an argument, a child leaving the home, a death, a job loss, a divorce, a birthday, unexpected contact from a long-lost friend or any number of … [Read more...]