I was reading a few comments from over the weekend, about how people are responding to the crisis in the gulf and I had a simple little a-ha:
Tragedy exists to help us connect
Connection can happen in many ways. We can respond by giving money, by changing our habits, by becoming activists. We can respond very personally, by writing and talking and making art about our experience.
The connection is what’s important here, because through it, we create recognition and understanding in a community way, and through that we become the …

V.o.D. the Impaler is the drama llama’s downstairs neighbor. V.o.D. is not my kind of animal.

You see, V.o.D. stands for Voice of Doom. He is the inner critic. He is that voice you hear that tells you that really, you suck. You suck. you suck.

So, you know what? You don’t suck. V.o.D. the impaler has dubious intentions, to make you play a small game. And that’s very silly. Silly Impala!

So, do you have those moments where it just seems very hard to focus on your own stuff, especially the hard stuff, especially the shameful yuck?

Yeah, me too.

Do you wish you had a free, relatively easy and painless way to handle the yuck?

Yeah?

Well, step right up. Don’t be shy. Have I got the deal for you…It’s called your imaginary therapist and you already own it!

Brave squirrels rock my world. They are awesome.

How did they get that way?

And are Portland Hipsters a bad influence on the wildlife?

This morning, at a very early hour, I sat tonglen over feelings of lack and the confusion that goes along with it.
I’m not feeling that way, but I know a few people who are. In fact, everywhere I turned this week, I heard a story about not having enough.
I thought you might want to see tonglen in action.  Okay, I look really tired, but it’s me.

And, then here’s Olive, my dog, thinking that I’m talking about tongue-len instead of tonglen.

Oh that silly …

When we are stuck with a small-t truth, we need to feel it in its entirety. We need to get our perception into every nook and cranny.

We need to understand and feel the pain of our brothers and sisters who are feeling the same way.

And then we need to turn this pain and suffering into peace and understanding.

The meditative practice of Tonglen does this. In this post, we use Tonglen to reprogram the small-t truth of “not having enough”.

I often go into a blog-post writing with the hope that I can solve a problem, once and for all, in the space of 500 words.
I feel like I’m writing things like “Transplant your own liver in 5 easy steps!”
But, there’s so much to say.  And I want to get it out and then talk about it.
Thank you for reading this, and talking with me about it, and finding value sometimes, and tolerating my words when the value is hard to see (or maybe not there at all. or only …

Previously, we talked about handling our feelings without hurting ourselves.
Today, we’re talking about handling our feelings without hurting others.
I hesitate to write about my children, because I want their words to be their own.
And yet, I think I can pinpoint the moment I stopped falling apart in front of  my children.
When I was 23 and my son was not-quite-3.  I found myself failing all of my courses at college.
I found that my little fledging restaurant had gone under (when a co-owner absconded with our wee, but sustainable profits).
I found …

So, in parts 1 and 2, we did very basic things.  We identified our emotions and we felt them.
Was part 2 hard for you?
Impossible?
For many, it is.
Sit still and feel something?  Sigh.

And he never did guess, in her cast iron dress, she was burning beyond recognition.
– Shawn Colvin
Do you feel so angry inside, and yet you want others to believe that certainly, life is swell, and you are okay and not one of those crazy hysterical types? Do you feel a smouldering rage?  Do you feel misunderstood?
I’m talking to …