by Kate | Aug 7, 2024 | Transformation
You are the painter of the landscape of your life. We all have givens… Those things that we can’t change about our lives: the circumstances into which we were born, the bodies we inhabit, consequences of choices we already made, or actions already taken. We are where...
by Kate | Aug 7, 2023 | Transformation
This month, I am working with the kind promise “I will reinvent whimsically.” I am asking what changes I want or need to make in my life. What would I like to do differently? I see a physiatrist once a year. (Think “rehab doctor.”) She asks me “what’s bugging you?”...
by Kate | Jul 27, 2022 | Transformation
“Grief,” writes B. Alan Wallace in The Four Immeasurables: Practices to Open the Heart, “is the near enemy of compassion.” Compassion, in Wallace’s view, is the desire that another be free from suffering. It holds the vision that such freedom is possible. In Buddhist...
by Kate | Sep 16, 2020 | kind promises, monsters, Transformation
When I lived in North Carolina, a tree fell on my neighbor’s car. He was upset and hired some guys to cut down many of the tall pine trees on his property. I cowered in the house that day, cringing at the sound of the chainsaws and the toppling trees. It felt like...
by Kate | Aug 22, 2020 | kind promises, monsters, Transformation
My mind is my biggest playground. Since I am quadriplegic, there’s not much I can change about my body, how it works (or doesn’t), or what it does. My body slips like an otter into the pool of “things I cannot change.” I am left with mind and spirit as potential...
by Kate | Sep 26, 2019 | Advocacy, kind promises, Transformation
Strong emotions sweep into us with energy. It’s up to us to use that energy – that passion – wisely. If we refuse to feel our emotions, the energy stays around inside our bodies. Like oil turning rancid, it can sour into depression or aggression. I have certainly...
