There is no situation too difficult to be bettered and no unhappiness too great to be lessened. This mic drop of a sentence forms a part of the closing reading in Al Anon. I'm sure I repeated it a hundred…
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Letter From Your Future Self
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I just finished a meditation from a favorite new source, Artist Morning. The title of the mediation, Calling All Angels, would have put me off before. But I am currently much…
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Teacher Failure and the Elephant of Wisdom
One of the things we learn at Al Anon meetings is self-compassion. Strangely enough, we do this by listening to each other week after week, non-judgmentally, with a loving smile on our face and hugs after the meeting if we…
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Tea Time With Fear
What does fear feel like to you?
During a conversation with my Al-Anon sponsor about leaving my life-long public teaching profession, she delicately but directly suggested that what I was really talking about was fear. I had called to sort…
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Dust to Dust, Stardust
While I have compiled and recorded two music albums, I have yet to put together or publish a poetry chapbook. Since it's only been a year and a half since my father died, it's not surprising that I've been starting…
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Scarlet Silence
I woke up in the early morning dark in a funky old $600 a month apartment above the old El Rey theater downtown. Aware of it being at least $200 more than I could afford, I couldn't resist the second…
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Jazz and Jackhammers
There's going to be construction every day this whole summer vacation right outside my front door. The city is tearing up the street to replace water pipes; a necessity for long term viability. This was not good news for my…
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Wildflower Recovery Ep.2 "Irritable and Unreasonable Without Knowing It"
In the second episode, meet guest/co-host Katie Phillip and learn how music and Al-Anon brought her and Karen together as they deconstruct Hafiz's poem, "I Know the Way You Can Get," uncovering the roots of our exasperated behavior.
SONGS IN…
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Wildflower Recovery Pilot 1 "When I Got Busy I Got Better"
Good friends push us in a good way. After talking to one of those good friends at a rough spot in the beginning of this new year, I decided to to publish the first episode from a podcast I started…
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Petals On the Wind
Sun sparkled on the water as I surveyed king tide waves at Bodega Head on my fiftieth birthday. I asked Higher Power what I should focus on this mile-marker of a year. A delightful series of images and ideas rolled…
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Silver Bridges
I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to write about something else, to distance myself from a profession with which I’m locked in a terminal love-hate relationship. Surely, as I boldy devoted precious morning energy hours toward the creative…
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Climbing the Ninth Step
Twelve step programs ask participants in step nine to “Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” Though often misunderstood, this step offers a spiritual practice of facing…
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52 Card Pickup
What a week. On the phone yesterday, a friend compared the struggle to create a new normal during this pandemic to a game of fifty-two card pickup. It certainly feels like playing without a full deck.
The last post showed…
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