CURRENTS THROUGH USELESS BAY

The important thing is to learn how to give to the life that is here, now. The losses I’ve experienced linger within me, but they too, are transforming into forms of creativity–generating by their absence more poignancy, compassion, and energy.

Can I stay with this? Can I stay here, in my body, with this pain, with this grief so large I see only the inside of a whale’s belly? Feel it fully, rock myself in the night, sob with it, see it, tell it all the things a mother-loving God knows how to say….

I think what I’m working toward here is a change in attitude toward our mistakes and errors and compulsions and addictions and unhealthy habits, etc.; a re-frame regarding how we view our propensity for them that helps us move through them rather than avoiding, ignoring, or indulging in them.

Like many of you, I am feeling anxiety about what is happening to our economy, and I am seeing more cases of anxiety in my counseling practice in Mukilteo. In times like these, it’s easy to collapse into fear or feel hopeless and apathetic, to point fingers of blame, and act out in anger.

Dear Alex:
I found this picture of you on your way to Kuwait on your sister’s Facebook account. I know I haven’t been much of a presence in your life, for reasons too complicated to go into here, but I’ve always thought about you during intermittent visits and as pictures came to me over the [...]

I’m not sure about how to respond to events in the world right now. People are frightened. I am frightened. Our economy appears to be collapsing, and the government only seems to offer band-aids that come with a negatively amortizing price-tag rather than real solutions that will eliminate the cause of this [...]

What is the structure of longing and belonging?
Some time ago I lived on Orcas Island off and on for about 4 or 5 years. I hadn’t been back to the island for 5 years, so for part of our vacation, my partner and I visited for a couple of days. Looking [...]

I don’t think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person. - James Hillman

I am always trying to understand the deeper issues beneath how things work in this country, and why so much of what we do isn’t working for so many people. [...]

My inbox this morning was acrimoniously stirred with posts on a thread from Zenhabits.net that again opened the controversy of Leo Babauta’s use of the word Zen in his blog title. I know why these posts happen. People are tired of seeing great pieces of art, deep and meaningful religious experiences, and unquantifiable [...]

Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not easy. -Aristotle
This post is in response to Evening Buzz: “Whiner” Nation? Lately I’ve been hearing those [...]