What does it mean to be real – really real?  According to the Skin Horse in The Velveteen Rabbit,  “When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” [1] Perhaps this 1922 children’s novel by Margery...

Grieving allows us to touch what is real. We are not allowed to grieve. We are especially not allowed to grieve losses that others don’t see or that are not allowed by society. Our grief is “disenfranchised”.  The ongoing and normalized turmoil of the last several...

Fear is a powerful emotion!  Rightly so!  It is intrinsically linked to our basic survival instinct.  In nanoseconds (far faster than we can think about anything), fear can catapult our nervous systems into a full blown “fight, flight, freeze, or all-out faint”...

(January 25, 2022 -- A reflection on well-being within the ongoing challenges of our times.) We have forgotten. We once seemed to know the importance of social determinants of health (food security, shelter security, loving human connections and community, access to...

(Written May 2020, this is a reflection several months into the by-now-global covid-19 crisis.) A clerical error twelve years ago included me in an email invitation to join a two year Lev Shomea (Heart Listening) spiritual direction training program….  The timing was...

(Written in February 2020, this is a reflection during the initial phases of the evolving covid-19 situation.) This pandemic is not the first, nor is it likely the last, to threaten the survival of the human species. Throughout history, humanity has faced natural...

(Written in December 2019, this winter reflection preceded the covid-19 awareness and impact in the US by several months.) Pause? A look at the “Power of Paws” might be more interesting. There are studies that examine the association between pet ownership and health....

(Written in September, 2019, this is an exploration of the mind/ body experience of change. It was prompted by my own shift - “retirement” - from the practice of medicine to refocus my energies on completing my work in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy.) Transitions...

(Written in July 2018, this is an exploration of mind/ body connection and well-being.) Perhaps “psychosomatic” was a perfectly good word when it was coined a century ago. It does acknowledge the interaction between body and mind. But it is most commonly used to...

Originally posted on December 13, 2015 The “unfairness” of life is a reality that all of us experience in one way or another. We get hurt. Someone treats us poorly. Someone or something special to us moves away or is taken from us. Relationships end. We get sick. What...