“Don’t judge a book by its cover!” We all like to spout this cliché, but few of us truly adhere to it, myself included. We live in a diverse, complicated world. We rely on our senses to navigate it—sight being one. We make assessments based on the images and...
Self-Acceptance
Healing with Acronyms: MISFIT
Manifest Inner Strength Find Individual Truth Remember the “island of misfit toys” in Rudolph? The winter wonderland where all the oddball toys huddled in the cold with tear-streamed faces lamenting how once again Santa left them behind and they’d...
Healing with Acronyms: FOOL
Forget Others’ Opinions Laugh Even Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies infuse comic relief. Can we say Macbeth and the Porter in unison everyone. The town fool supplying tension-breaking buffoonery is a staple in all great drama. Laughter at follies, and...
Healing with Acronmys: PAST
Pull All Stuff Together And put it in a box. Can’t change the past. The past will come back to haunt you. Stop living in the past as the present is all we get that’s why it’s called the present for it’s the gift of today. We’ve all heard...
Reflections from the Pond–Integrity and the Blank Canvas by Betsy Lohrer Hall
A well-trained Olympic diver neatly parts the water as she enters it—she barely makes a ripple. Thinking or acting with integrity is much like this. It is clear and direct, and it may seem effortless. But it is not easy; it takes practice. So today, I practice. I...
Anger–A Daughter’s Rage at Alzheimer’s by P.J. McIlvaine
We were sitting in a restaurant--me, my mother, and the jerk who eventually became her second husband (he was also the creep who tried to molest me under the guise of fatherly pretense). He went on and on about how much he loved my mother, that my brother and I had...
The Hero Within–A Journey Toward Happiness by Jenny Ngo
PARADIGM: Stuck in a Habit When I was young life was difficult, or rather I was resistant to it. You always hear people say "I wish I knew then what I know now" and boy doesn't that ring true for me. I knew nothing of the concept of allowing or being in the flow. I...
Healing with Acronyms: EGO
Express Genuineness Outwardly Ego—that three-letter four-letter word. Everyone’s got one. Yet everyone complains about everyone else’s. Ego as of late has gotten a bad rap. It has become synonymous with arrogance and a self-inflated sense of one’s value and...