“Do you live as though you have all the time in the world? Having all the time in the world is an illusion. You never know what might happen—an accident, an illness, or a disaster. If you only had moments to live, would you change your priorities? What would you do? Where would you go?…
At the entrance to Pema Chodron’s monastery on Cape Breton Island is a sign that reads: “Enjoy Your Life.” Pema, like all of us knows that life isn’t a bowl of cherries. It can be unfair – sometimes in our favor and sometimes not. However, when we show up for our life with a curious mind,…
Expectations and Happiness It seems that our happiness can be measured in inverse proportion to our expectations. I asked my Mother on her 80th birthday, which birthday was the best. “This one,” she said. “Tell me more,” I urged. “My life has been so much better than I expected, and it keeps getting better,” was…
When I did my Certification Training in Japanese Psychology, one of the expectations was to simply apologize for mistakes. In other words, if you were late arriving to the class, or behind with an assignment, you apologized. No explanation or rationalization was permitted. This was hard for me to learn. To simply apologize or admit…
Spring is the hopeful season. The photo is from my friend Karen’s garden ten years ago. Another friend sent me a bouquet of poems, of which this is one of them. I chose this poem of spring written by my long-deceased poet friend, Ryokan, who lived and died long before any of us was born.…
The Biggest Lie We Tell Ourselves by Trudy Boyle The biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we did it all on our own. You know what I mean, built a career, bought property, raised a family, did good works, voted in every election, acquired wealth – Self-made. The lie doesn’t negate our effort. We…
One of the dilemmas we all face is that we don’t live up to our own standards and expectations. It is painful, once again, to see myself, make the same old mistakes, bite the hook, and succumb to righteousness, defensiveness, or something like, “mistakes were made but not by me.” In Living Fully with Illness,…
Push Back Against Weariness by Trudy Boyle This morning each person I talked to claimed to be exhausted. With good reason. In my city I just discovered there is a riskier color than Covid red. It is Covid grey. Furthermore, grey means a full legally enforceable lockdown and my entire province is now designated grey.…