The other day, I put my car key fob in a sweatshirt pocket and washed it with the laundry. Fortunately, the fob still worked after I dried it out and put in a new battery. The next day, I went to the grocery store only to discover that I left my wallet at home. The...
Last week I attended a community conversation at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio, on the topic of loneliness. The gathering was sponsored in part by the Ohio State University Interfaith Council (of which I am a member). Though I was very eager to...
I had been wondering whether the pandemic turned this raging extrovert into an introvert. Although I’ve been comfortable being alone for some time, I feel even more at ease now. I even want to stay home by myself sometimes! Also a consummate traveler before the...
I figure you'll get enough of that commercialized romantic love BS from the holiday industrial complex in February. Let’s talk about loving ourselves instead. Romantic comedies often give lip service to loving ourselves when the protagonist of their story has trouble...
When I've gained weight (as I have in the pandemic), I have a tendency to engage in some really negative self-talk about my body. Not out loud. To myself. I would never say these things to another human, but somehow it’s acceptable to say them to myself. Why?...
“When your mind turns to judgment, instead turn to wonder.” This was one of the guidelines for behavior at a retreat I attended years ago. It really grabbed my attention and caused me to reflect. My habit of judging others’ behaviors, choices and mistakes is deeply...
I am not a crafty person. I’ve often envied people who can bring knitting or crochet into a meeting and absentmindedly work on a project while occasionally and appropriately interjecting into the conversation. I am in awe of the attention to detail people pay to bead...
I don’t know about you, but my mind rushes to judgment at the tiniest provocation. My worst judgment erupts while I’m driving. It gets triggered by everyone who is jumping across lanes to get where they want, blocking me from changing lanes, driving too fast/too slow,...
In my 20s and early 30s, envy would rise up like bile in my throat whenever I opened another calligraphy-covered, heavyweight envelope inviting me to yet another wedding. In my 30s and early 40s, envy weighed on my shoulders when I saw others’ careers progress and...
Even though I liked to learn and did pretty well in school, I felt pretty nervous every year before starting class again. The anxiety amped up in middle and high school. I dreaded seeing students who picked on me. I was insecure about my body in gym class. I was...
Late in July, I absentmindedly turned the wheel of my car, hit a curb and tore a hole in the tire. My car limped along while I struggled to find a parking place on the narrow streets in an older part of Columbus, Ohio. Now sweltering in my car, I used the AAA app to...
Confession: I did not want to write this blog this week. I’m exhausted. I’m grumpy. I’m discouraged. My meditation practice this morning only took the edge off my funk. I’m glad I work and live alone so that others don’t have to put up with me right now. (Apologies in...
Even though my mother claimed I could sleep through lawn mower noise outside my window as an infant, that blissful sleeper ceased to exist sometime in early childhood. Once I had my own room, every foundation-settling creak, wild thunderstorm or nightmare would launch...
I have chanted the sound Om before and after yoga classes thousands of times. When I felt and heard the sound of Om reverberating off the walls in the actual room of my home yoga studio in Columbus, Ohio, for the first time in more than a year, I was awestruck. The...
Inadequacy covered me like a smothering blanket. Typing up the description to our first-ever foray into teaching a Mindfully Embracing Anti-Racism series, I heard the whispers of nagging voices in my head saying, “Who are you to do this?” and “You don’t know what...