Take Back Your Life!

Hey rebels,

I spent all of my twenties and much of my thirties sleepwalking through my life. Obediently placing my shoes in the impressions of the shoes that preceded me. Never questioning where the hell I was going.

Didn’t realize I was on autopilot until a new colleague assumed the desk behind me at my then research job. At one point after professing my boredom, she said, “read The Women Who Run With The Wolves.”

Her prose slapped me into an awakened state. The first one I’d been in since a child, when I constantly roamed my world with senses open and engaged. (more…)

Hello friends,

I awoke to an odd telephone call this morning.

An old, rarely used email account had been hijacked by some folks with too much time on their hands. They had sent an email to all my contacts pretending to be me. They told everyone I’d been robbed at gunpoint in England and my family needed 1,600 pounds sterling ($2,600 in US dollars) to pay off our hotel bill and purchase airline tickets to get home. (more…)

Dear rebellious ones,

It takes a bit of living to figure out that the life you’re living looks remarkably similar to the life everyone else seems to be living. Many of us are dancing to the same beat and it may not be a song we even like.

After a few carefree childhood years, most of us are slowly molded into a semi-generic person that’s conditioned to believe she or he needs to keep jumping through an endless series of conformist hoops (while teetering on the treadmill) to find happiness and success. The problem? As soon as you jump through one hoop, a new one appears in front of you, often higher. It’s always the next hoop you’re promised that will bring you the life you desire. (more…)

Hey folks who want to feel alive,

It’s that time of the current year when folks talk about setting goals for the upcoming year. The problem with goals is that once you slap things you want (or someone else wants you) to do with the word goals, you’re even less likely to do them. It’s got to be one of the ugliest words in the English language. And backwards it spells “slaog,” which is way too close to slog and slag. It reminds me of the sludge produced by “clean coal” in a great documentary I saw last night called, “Burning Our Future.” Will be talking about Mountain Top Removal soon. The movie got me so worked up I started writing my next newspaper column on it. See, if something moves me, I take action – I don’t need to “slaogify” it. (more…)

Hey feisty folks,

I’ll get right to the point.

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Yes, that’s right. We come into this world genuine and adventurous and loving. Those qualities get hidden under cloaks of “must do isms.” At first others put these cloaks on us, then we willingly put them on ourselves long after the cloak-putter-onners no longer have the power to do so. Sometimes the cloaks get so heavy people collapse under the burden of trying to wear them, suffocated by the weight. You’ve seen these folks or, perhaps, even been one yourself, crawling through life, feeling unbelievably heavy. (more…)

Hey alive folks!

I’ve begun writing an essay on wind – how it’s influenced my life, how it carries parts of us to other places and brings parts of others to us, how I tend to fight it when it might be better to go with it. The topic of wind made me think of this awesome Jimi Hendrix song: The Wind Cries Mary.

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with his crutch, it’s old age, and it’s wisdom

(more…)

Show Yourself Some Compassion

I’d like to give you the gift of self-compassion this holiday season. Most of us are way too hard on ourselves. We self-flagellate with whips of conformity & criticism. “You MUST do all of the societal ‘its’ or you’re a complete and utter failure,” we hear someone scream at us, only to realize we are the ones screaming. (more…)

Hey wild ones,

Nothing like a provocative title to capture someone’s attention. I scribbled this title idea on a scrap of paper 4 months ago and tucked it in my idea folder. Thumbing through the folder, “Strip!” jumped into my brain’s arms and said, “take me.” Not sure where I’m going, but I’ll find out. Want to join me? (more…)

Hey “get off the beaten path” folks,

Just returned from strolling through my old junior high. Actually, it’s not a junior high any more, it’s my hometown’s town offices. Much of that building had been reconfigured so I had a hard time figuring out where I was at first — lockers gone, classrooms gone. Then I decided to look for the “staircase” of fond young love memories. The staircases back then were one way for a reason I never understood then and still don’t know now. All I knew was that I slipped out of science class the second the bell rang and ran up the down staircase hoping to “bump” into the object of my desire – John Donovan. It often worked. On those glorious days, he’d nuzzle up to me a bit, look down at me and swagger hello. God, I almost died of lust and longing right there on the top of the landing. Yes, even at the tender age of 12, I risked getting in trouble for the boy that evoked the most delicious kind of lust in me. (more…)

Hello warmhearted folks.

For much of my life, I tried to hide my tears. Somewhere along the line I learned that tears were bad. Tears were weak. Tears were failure.

Instead, I counteracted the emotion that wanted to come out by thinking happy thoughts. Breathing in and out quickly. Turning from the person. Letting my hair droop over my eyes. Excusing myself to go to the bathroom. (more…)