Making assumptions is a habit that can be as hard to break as giving up smoking. Our mind gets addicted to filling in the blanks in any scenario, and before we know it we are reaching for another assumption and harming our mental health. While assumptions might give us an immediate sense...
"Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love." don Miguel Ruiz
While the first agreement, be impeccable with your word, is only five words, they are five words that could be researched and practiced for a long, long time. As I...
I am blessed with a fabulous mother, so every Mother's Day I get to give her a call and thank her for being such an inspiration and support in my life. Since we live in different states, I usually send a card, sometimes a gift, talk with her on the phone, and go about my day.
But this Moth...
One of my worst nightmares almost came true yesterday.
I had just flown from Austin to Seattle and I was walking through baggage claim when I made my awful discovery.
An image of my computer tucked in snuggly with the SkyMall catalog and the airplane emergency procedures brochure se...
Last weekend I taught a workshop with the Ruiz family in Austin. Don Miguel, don Miguel Jr, don Jose Luis and I had so much fun teaching together that the next day I asked don Miguel, “Would you want to do more teaching with the four of us next year?”
His reply was simple, as it always...
Last month my neighbor, Stephen, called me and asked, “Have you talked to the landlord yet?”
Stephen and I live in a mirror-image duplex near downtown Austin; I have the left side, he has the right, and we share one long wall between us and a fabulous landlord.
Our landlord appa...
In the Toltec teachings there are three masteries: awareness, transformation, and intent, which don Miguel Ruiz also calls the mastery of love. We don't “graduate” from one mastery and then leave it behind as we move to the next. I visualize the masteries more like a pyramid. We want to have ...
Last blog I wrote about yes; this blog we will explore getting to love NO, both giving and receiving.
Author Byron Katie shares a brilliant observation about "no:" When you say no to someone else you are saying yes to yourself.
Yes and no go hand in hand. For each yes, there is a no...
I'm on a greyhound bus, watching sunrise talcum powder the sky soft rose and gold and turquoise. As the golden hills and massive oak trees of California start to merge into the tall soldier pine forests of Oregon, I have a song jangling around in my sleepy head like loose keys in a big purse.
...
When I planned my first visit to the Texas gulf coastline I bounced around like a kid for a week before the trip, excitedly gathering things for the journey. Sunscreen. Sand castle building tools. A good mat to lie on. I had visions of barefoot walks and sand between my toes, the lull of wa...
