Threshold Birthdays – Just Another Day?

  Even though in reality it’s just another day, it can be unsettling when we mark the passage from an age that ends with 9 to the next that ends with 0. Sometimes it’s exciting. Other times, not so much. If not attended to well, these transitions can be a minefield of self-criticism and shoulda, coulda, woulda: have done more, be somewhere else, have more to show, be over this (fill in the blank).   It...

When Transitions Intersect

Back around 2012 I had been asking the universe for a big change in my life. My sense was it would be in the area of work and creativity where I was feeling stagnant and had become restless. I even went so far as to say: “Surprise me!” No one was more surprised than me when I was diagnosed a year later with Stage 4 throat cancer. Lesson #1 – be specific about what you ask for. Little did I know then that this very...

Transitions – the discomfort zone

 Transition times are paradoxical. At a time when we feel unsettled and in a hurry to return to equilibrium, we are best served by slowing down. Transition takes time and doesn’t happen in the fast lane. Transformation – which every transition invites – cannot happen in our comfort zone.   Transition can be scary and paralyzing if we don’t have the tools to consciously engage uncertainty. The real work in times of...

Self-fullness

One of the barriers we can bump up against in committing ourselves to inner work is the feeling that time to focus on ourselves is selfish. “Who do you think you are,” “why can’t you just be grateful for what you have,” and other familiar refrains are echoes from our past that keep us locked into old patterns that do not serve who we are becoming. It seems we often have to come to a crisis point before we...

Helping Allies

  The important strangers who gathered this past weekend at the Women at the Well retreat were blessed with many helping allies from the natural world to assist us going deep in our work. Helping allies are the animals, natural elements, and nature spirits that  show up at a particular time in life to guide and teach us. Whether we like them or not, are afraid of them or not, are comfortable with the message...