Reflections
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Instagram of the Week :: Enjoying Beauty in the Simple Things
One of my favorite hobbies before I had my daughter, would be to scour local estate sales looking for abstract art, pottery, and unusual artifacts. And I have to say I have a pretty good eye for finding things that everyone else passed over. But really it comes down to choosing things I really love and enjoy looking at. I am not thinking about whether I found the piece of artwork worth a million dollars like what you see on those antique shows (though that would be nice), but finding pieces I truly appreciate. There was this cool looking abstract black and white rather large painting that reminded me of a Jackson Pollock painting (no such luck) but…
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Reflections :: The Need To Be Social
The Importance of Friendships: I was thinking some more about needs recently, as result of studying for an upcoming class at school on group counseling. A man named Irvin D. Yalom is considered among modern psychologists to be instrumental for his work on social needs because of his vast experience leading groups and studying group dynamics. In one of his books he speaks very practically about how putting people in a group for counseling purposes is proven to instill hope in them, to provide education through modelling of leadership, to correct early examples of bad relationships, and to instill trust and correct and allow interpersonal development. These…
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Reflections :: Family Reunion Week
It was my 78th family reunion this past weekend. My father’s dad, one of eleven children, and my Grammy the saint, would pack my dad and his six brothers and sisters up and haul them into the mountains in Pennsylvania to be with their aunts and uncles. I’ve never been there, but grew up on fed stories of Lonely Acres much as I did on food. The dirty swimming hole, the cabin for all the kids, games that included a supposed rolling pin toss between couples, that left the men running towards the pond and the women falling over one another with a body laughter so specific only women know it’s true. When I…
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Words of Wisdom My Mother Passed On To Me
When I think back to the main things I learned from my mother, they had more to do with an overall feeling than actual words of wisdom, though there were a couple that still run through my head! It was a way of being in the world as a woman and what it meant to create your own path. My mother was very driven to make things happen – whatever that might be at the moment. To give an example, in the early 80’s she worked at a nursing agency in Orange County, California as a employee. After only a few months at that job, she realized that not only…
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Reflections :: To be alive with what is alive
Here is a thought worth contemplating. It comes from a man named James Hollis in his book The Archetypal Imagination. Hollis reminds us that the Greek word psyche, which is the root of words like psychology, means soul. Today the word psyche is associated with our mental life, as in our thoughts and emotions–what’s going on in our head. Meaning psyche as soul could be showing itself in whats running across our mind. Soul is a funny thing to talk about. It’s not something that can be counted or added up. It has much more to do with quality. So let’s call it quality of life. Starting with the idea of…
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Reflections :: Owning Our Needs
Owning Our Needs: Lately, in my work with women, I have been very aware of a theme around our needs. Identifying needs can be very difficult. Sociological programs are belief systems that aren’t personal to us, but often are, because of what is considered acceptable or normal, we measure our self worth. This can lead to a monotonous loss of vitality, a feeling of numbness or stress over the daily going-ons of life, because the needs that drive and demand us aren’t reflective of our true, actual, internal needs. Our needs speak to us from our truth. Needs speak in a quiet voice. Ignore the voice long enough and…
