You’re Allowed Moments of Good Amid This Bad

Life/reality is never only one thing. This is one of the most convoluted, ridiculous times anyone could have imagined living in. After some 50 years of steady progress with inclusivity, diversity, environmental protections, expanding rights, and other milestones, here we are. In just 6 months, our so-called leaders have done truly surreal harm. It’s not just here in the United States, of course. Putin and his war in Ukraine, the insanity between Netanyahu’s government and Hamas and the Palestinians, it

Positivity Is Not Pointless

Genuine positivity can still be employed in the face of this crazy reality. Unless you’ve been living in a cave or otherwise off the grid, you probably see the insanity that is the state of “reality” today. Distressing policies and laws being made, undoing environmental protections and civil liberties, increasing stances against science and reason, and other unfathomable matters are bombarding us daily. It can start to feel like it’s all going to come crashing down. It’s the end of

Staying Aware Of the World Without Becoming Overwhelmed

This is not easy. I’m simply stunned by how bad Trump’s administration is. They seem hell-bent on undoing decades of progress in health, the environment, human rights, inclusivity, and anything else even remotely “woke” or liberal. We have one damned planet. Sure, go ahead, let’s go back to heavy smog choking our cities, killing our drinking water, and the rest. If it makes someone money, that’s far more important. I know this based on headlines I’ve read, and it’s sufficient

How Can You Break Free of the Collective Consciousness?

This is where applied mindfulness and nontoxic positivity come in. You are the only you that there is. Hence, you’re the only one in your head, heart, and soul. Nobody but you can think your thoughts, feel your feelings, determine your intentions, choose if your approach is positive or negative, or take action, but you. These are wholly your choices to make. Or not. Because, as singular and unique as you are, you are also part of the greater collective

What If There’s Not Really an Us vs Them?

What if the divides between people are wholly artificial? Everywhere you turn, you’re shown an us vs them. We’re constantly bombarded by messages defining who is who, and both blatantly and subtly making one or the other the villain of the piece. Conservative vs liberal. Black vs white. Male vs female. Old vs young. Christian vs atheist. Palestinian vs Israeli. Native vs immigrant. Have vs have not. Us vs them. No matter the label you apply to any people, places,

Caring Is Not a Weakness

Kindness, compassion, empathy, and caring empower. There’s a loud, obnoxious message permeating the collective consciousness these days. That message is that kindness, compassion, empathy, and caring make you weak. That giving a shit about the welfare of anyone other than yourself or your specific group is somehow part of the “woke” agenda. The message is that doing anything for anyone other than you and yours is a sign of weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is not

Getting a Handle On My Shortened Fuse

A quest to create or find more chill, balance, and centering. Lately, I go from calm to irked like a high-performance car goes from zero to sixty. I recognize that there’s something in the collective consciousness eating away at my calm, my balance, my okay. Without a doubt, this is tied to the horribly unkind, uncompassionate, hateful, spiteful “people” in positions of power. When did it become okay to be outright rude, nasty, and disrespectful? The not-funny thing about this

What’s On The Other Side of This Mood?

That depends on the choices I make. I am not in a good mood at the moment. There are multiple compounding factors to this. For context, please allow me to lay them out here. I did not sleep well last night. I was having stress-thoughts (dreams? It’s so seldom that I recall dreams). These were about the insane, infuriating state of the nation, the world, my medieval reenactment society, the health and welfare of numerous of my friends, and a

Why Do I Keep Doing This?

Is there a reason for me to keep doing this? For my first-ever New Year’s Action, back in 2011/2012, I decided to embrace my desire to be a more prolific writer. My New Year’s Action was this: I would write a blog entry, once a week, every Wednesday. That was 707 weeks ago – 13.6 years. Every. Single. Wednesday. For more than 13 years. When I started exploring this idea for choosing my own way in life – Pathwalking –

Only You Know Where Your Lines Are

That’s good – knowing your lines empowers you. Everyone has limits of their own making. Lines in the sand that they cannot or will not cross. Some of these are utterly conscious and handpicked. Others are subconscious and not necessarily desirable. Yet, either way, only you know where your lines are. There are many things in your life that you can apply lines to. Often, people cede many of them because they worry about the impression drawing lines will make

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