What we call disappointment may just be the first stage of our emancipation into the next great pattern of our existence. The measure of our courage is the measure of our willingness to embrace disappointment. To turn towards it rather than away from it. Disappointment is the understanding that every real conversation of life involvesContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Disappointment is a measure of our courage”
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Comforting Thought: Life is too short for anger
Life is far too short for anger. You must learn to repress emotions that disturb your peace of mind and prevent you from standing firm. If you want to stand firm, it is a precondition that you aren’t easily knocked off your stride. We are constantly bombarded with appeals to our emotions – on television,Continue reading “Comforting Thought: Life is too short for anger”
People make things to express their need (or fear) of connection
“It seems funny to think that healing or coming to terms with loneliness and loss, or with the damage accrued in scenes of closeness, the inevitable wounds that occur whenever people become entangled with one another, might take place by means of objects. It seems funny, and yet the more I thought about it theContinue reading “People make things to express their need (or fear) of connection”
The Songs of Tangaroa ~ Ngā Waiata o Tangaroa
Te Au o te Moana Our nation was born in the bosom of the ocean where the sea leans on the land Our stories are intimately written in the narratives of ocean canoes sailings driftings taniwha whirlpools discoveries making our world wider The salt in our veins brought us together to find each other TheContinue reading “The Songs of Tangaroa ~ Ngā Waiata o Tangaroa”
Kintsukuroi or why we are perfect in our imperfection
“There is a Japanese practice called Kintusukoroi or kintsugi which means ‘golden repair’. Kintsukuroi is the art of repairing broken pottery with powdered gold or platinum mixed with lacquer, so that the repair reflects the history of the breakage. “The repaired object mirrors the fragility and imperfection of life – and also its beauty andContinue reading “Kintsukuroi or why we are perfect in our imperfection”
Comforting Thought: Empathy Between Gift and Invasion
“I’m interested in everything that might be flawed and messy about empathy, how imagining other lives can constitute a kind of tyranny, or artificially absolve ourselves from guilt or responsibility. How feeling empathy can make use feel we’ve done something good when we actually haven’t. “We start to like the feeling of feeling bad forContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Empathy Between Gift and Invasion”
Comforting Thought: Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself
To forgive is to assume a larger identity than the person who was first hurt, to mature and bring to fruition an identity that can put its arm not only around the afflicted one within, but also around the memories we carry of the searing emotional blow. We imagine ourselves in the light of ourContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself”
The high-spirited thoroughbred
The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sunstruck hills every day. Diane Ackerman
Comforting Thought: Some teachers walk on two legs, others on four or more.
“I am still learning how to be a good creature. Though I try earnestly, I often fail. But I am having a great life trying – a life exploring this sweet green world – and returning to a world where I am blessed with a multispecies family offering me comfort and joy. “I wish IContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Some teachers walk on two legs, others on four or more.”
Art shows us that not all scars are ugly
Art has a strange negotiating ability between people, including people who never meet and yet who infiltrate and enrich each other’s lives. It create intimacys; it does have a way of healing wounds, and better yet of making it apparent that not all wounds need healing and not all scars are ugly.
Content Catnip 