Solitude comforts like a warm blanket around my shoulders.
Enduring peace and stillness.
Yet sometimes too still.

Yearning for the twinkling laughter of young voices.
Light upon the day. Fresh eyes filled with wonder at each new discovery.
The world new to them.

I see the world reborn in their eyes. A place of marvels and adventures.
What discovery waits right around this corner?
Let's skip over there or maybe gallop like horses and see.
I am not too old to skip nor to remember how to play.

Photo by Andre Hunter

Round and round I go.
The merry-go-round twirling.
My steed moving.
Revisiting the same time and place
Over and over and over.

Tossing and turning nights.
Slipping into memory.
Things I wish I hadn't done.
Regrets in the lonely dark.
Nothing to be done about it now in the moonlit night.
Little to be done in daylight hours,
Save attempting to make amends.

Why this place again and again?
Is there something left undone?
I've been here before many times.

Photo by Ran Berkovich

Are you hot?

So am I.

It rained yesterday afternoon. Starting as spits. Then plops. Then a quick downpour. It wet the ground for a few minutes before evaporating away or sinking into parched soil. An unexpected and welcome gift.

The climate crisis was made real here in the Sonoran desert by our missing monsoon last summer. I can see through the desert now. Big gaps where native plants have turned to leafless hulks from lack of water. The fire risk is extremely high. And lightning season just arrived. Heaven help the wild creatures who have inhabited this land for ages.

And what is being done?  The place I like to start is with myself. What am I doing to reduce my carbon footprint?  How about you?

Photo by Hendrik Morkel

A whirling top can spin clockwise or counterclockwise.

We can spin the meaning of our world to fit the narrative we already believe.

It's natural to want to put ourselves in a good light to others. To appear different than we are. To put a good spin on. Hero or victim, we get to choose.

I hear similar spins of government interfering with the free market to "save" industries.  What housing shortage? Why did we bail out auto, airline, and mortgage lending industries?

It's important to hear the spin. To see it for what it is. To remember who pays for the "news" we consume. Follow the money trail.  It leads to the puppet masters.

Photo by Christophe Hautier

All flavors of life combine in the cooking pot.
The bitterness of defeat and loss.
The sweetness of dreams fulfilled.
The tartness of surprising outcomes and regret.
The pungency of adventure and explorations.
The saltiness of brazen daring and encrusted belief.

A meal with balanced flavors is delicious.
Too much of one flavor or not enough of another ruins the dish.

Photo by Gary Sandoz on Unsplash

Privileged to be of service, I create and heal of my own free will.
I have a choice of work, where I live, and what I eat.
No chains keep me at my post or separate me from my family.

Honoring freedom. The freedom proclaimed by our democratic experiment.
I count myself fortunate to be born in this day and age of choice. So much choice.
Free to wander or settle. Free to work hard or not. Free to dream big dreams.
Free to see myself reflected in the faces of others regardless of our differences.

Differences are the spice that gives the soup a kick.

Happy Juneteenth!

I wrote a list of dreams for my life when I was 30. Recently I found it. Just 60 now, I had achieved nearly all of them, even though the list was long-forgotten. I was reminded what it felt like to be 30. To have the world open to dreaming. To wish. To hope. To imagine.

Starting my own business was on the list. Check!
And writing a book. Planned for this year. Soon to be checked off.

I find the dreams I have been dreaming recently, that seem new to me, are on that list. I guess I have held them secretly all along. What a gift of discovery as I sorted through boxes from my past to make way for my new clinic! Excavating the dreams of my youth.

Do you have a list of dreams from your youth?  Are the dreams still relevant to you now?

Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

"You have to spend money to make money", so the saying goes.

Investing time learning a useful skill pays off in the long run.

Cultivating relationships slowly and consistently leads to trust and mutual support.

It's the long, slow game of investing day after day in creating your decades-from-now self, life, world.

You get to decide how to invest your time, money, emotional and physical energy. It's a day at a time game. What will today look like?

Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash

Despite our best efforts to be safe, accidents happen.
Could we be more careful? Probably.

That piece of sidewalk sticking up can be avoided if we are paying attention.
The steep ravine on our right as we mountain climb requires diligent foot placement.

And yet a red light runner is hard to see ahead of time.

Living life presents risks. I find I enjoy it more if I don't spend all my time avoiding them. If an accident happens, I will manage. 

Are you a risk taker or a risk avoider?

Photo by Simon English on Unsplash

Knowing when to say no is a skill. It takes practice.

Growing up, there were more rewards if you did as you were told.

A rebel has a difficult time fitting in. And our culture rewards fitting in.

If we can't learn to say no, we will burn out. Give too much of ourselves away. Overload ourselves with more tasks than we can do. Start to resent the people we are helping.

It's okay to say no. In fact, it's the only way to have the energy to say yes to the thing that is right for us.

Go ahead, give it a try.

Photo by Emma Frances Logan on Unsplash