Zen and the Art of the Midlife Crisis

New Year Revolution

2012-01-05T06:28:00.000-05:00

With six loads of laundry folded before the sun was even up on New Years morning, I wish I could say I had felt accomplished. The truth, however, was that in that damp dark dawn we call a holiday, I was awake too early and alert with fear and worry about what may or may not lie ahead. In the darkness, it is too easy to become overwhelmed by the prospect of matching all that

Breathing In, Breathing Out

2011-12-28T06:25:00.001-05:00

In a few days we begin the year that some believe will be the end of the world. I prefer to add the phrase "as we know it" and join in the celebrations around the world that predict a marvelous transformation of fear into love. The energy is mounting. More and more, I find myself in cosmic conversations that blissfully dance around images of joy. Beatific smiles grace the voices

Good Cheer

2011-12-25T08:28:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning early around the world children are waking up with visions of wrappings torn from their packages. Parents hold hands and are proud, joyful and loving to hear the delighted screams. The day of peace on earth and good will seems abundant with truth and beauty. Other religions have their celebrations of light in this time of short days and dark nights.

Heart-centered Holidays

2011-12-07T08:07:00.001-05:00

As the days of December darken into winter, holidays ignite magic into our hearts, creating light to find our way. Be it Christmas, the Solstice festivals, Hanukah or Kwanzaa, the time is of celebration and gratitude for all the gifts material and metaphysical that we have received. Tinsel and glitter, red cheeks and candles, song and festivities create sparkling energy

Love Over Gold

2011-11-18T08:04:00.001-05:00

The test of my true faith has come upon me. Far later than is healthy for any man, I have accepted one last parting gift from my father and step out into the world once again on my own. No longer tested like some Job broken-hearted on my sofa with a tube in my belly and dreams in my head, today I go forth strong, healthy, and loved to find my way, earn my keep and leave no

Words in the washing pile: finding creativity amid the “everyday.”

2011-11-17T07:32:00.001-05:00

Karin Cox is a professional editor in Australia (don't let that stop you from sending a manuscript for her review!) and the author of more than 28 non-fiction titles. In 2010, she published her first ebooks Growth and Cage Life, which between them have attracted more than 35,000 readers. We "met" through a link after a link after a link--perhaps one link too many that night, but turns out to

To the Wolves and Sheep Who Cry enough

2011-11-16T10:01:00.001-05:00

Just as the sense of the Occupy Wall Street Movement began nearly overnight, it seems evictions of parks in cities around the country have tried to put an end to the uprising in one fell swoop. We are on the verge of a precipice and our collective energy as a culture and society, the kind of world we want for ourselves and our children, teeters in the balance. The mayor of Oakland

Imagine: it's easy if you try

2011-11-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

A little more than a year ahead of the Mayan Calendar's end of the world as we know it in December 2012, our good ol' Western version, accepted by most, will reach the symmetrically perfect date of 11/11/11 in just two days. Many have embraced significant meaning in the perfection and will honor the moment in different ways. However deep and spiritual one wants to think about it,

What is Your Life Whispering to You?

2011-11-07T15:58:00.001-05:00

Guest Post By Cheryl Shireman I believe life whispers to you and provides direction. I call that life force God. You can call it whatever you want, but there is no escaping it. If we are open and brave enough to say yes, life will take us in directions we never expected, and you will live a life beyond your wildest dreams. Those whisperings often come in the form of a “crazy” idea or a nudge

How Sharing Wealth Attracts Prosperity

2011-11-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

The broader and more sophisticated grows the world wide web, the closer are we able to connect to total strangers, creating community in all corners and companionship even as we sit alone. The ripples of nearly every conversation can wander near and far. Countless acquaintances with neighbors have been deepened online and some connections with people on the other side of

Milestones in Tiny Steps

2011-10-20T11:07:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, I did the marketing must of a good business and sent out a newsletter to my email list. Although there is little income for my efforts at this point, it was remarkable to notice how busy I am, how many pies have been created for my fingers to nibble. Days slip through our grasp and race around the corners of each season. Before we know to look in the mirror, grey

Houses of Glass

2011-10-16T10:05:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday evening, my life will be the focus of a two hour discussion on the internet. While there are nooks and crannies too personal or involving others that will not be voiced, most everything about my inner heart and soul is on the table. Uncomfortable with braggadocio and self-importance, I have spent much of these past years examining my motives for writing this blog and book,

The Call to Arms Embracing

2011-10-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

My version of facebook tonight is loaded with clips and quotes about the movement to occupy Wall Street and its spread to other cities around the country. "Something's happening here, and what it is..." is very exciting. Only a month ago, I heard someone from Vermont mention heading down to participate and offering to carry donations to help the protesters. A veteran of Viet Nam

Letting the Sunshine In

2011-10-08T10:33:00.001-04:00

One of my biggest fears, I admit, is spending the working part of my life in a 9 to 5 cubicle, a rote sort of drudgery that might grind the joy in my soul to dust. Of course, this is obscenely unfair, a phobia generated out of early television shows, ignorance and my own well-nourished determination. My father led a large architectural firm and traveled for business and pleasure

Help From Friends

2011-10-04T17:11:00.000-04:00

Energy builds and relaxes by the hour, sometimes by the minute. As we awaken to more conscious living, our heads swim with the pulls and tugs between new perspective and old habits. Exploring the potential of ideas that flood through the opening sluice gates of creative life, my mind leaps and frolics with passion for the dreams, long dormant, now coming more clearly into focus.

New Warriors

2011-09-29T10:53:00.000-04:00

Men do not just talk about sex and football anymore. This generation still known as baby-boomers, even as we settle towards our time of rest, relaxation and retirement, was raised quite differently than we have actually behaved. What was envisioned by our parents as a right of ascension has been, for better or worse, supplanted by the realities of sustainability and

'Til Death Do Us Part

2011-09-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

Moving my father into the room where he will likely take his last breaths has understandably unleashed intense emotions neither of us could avoid. Only a year ago in a similar room one wing over, he and my sisters held vigil for four days as my mother's body slowly shut down, one system by one, and life passed away. Although my father is fairly strong today, I could not keep the memory away as

Trump Loyal

2011-09-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

In life there are things we know which science eventually proves to be true. Like a fever that begins with chills is confirmed with a thermometer, we are learning in these times of transformation that we can think with our hearts as much as our minds. Intuition is a force long regarded as a voice with value. Often labeled as a woman's insight, even men have been told to

MC Squared

2011-09-19T09:31:00.002-04:00

Calories are energy, a unit of potential heat most often measured in food and calculated in how we feed our body. A clear and quantifiable amount, we can see what goes in and link it directly to the exercise and activity necessary to burn it off, what must be accomplished to get it back out. ...or we get fat. Money is energy. Likewise, we produce in fits

Chairs on the Side of the Road

2011-09-12T12:53:00.002-04:00

Several years ago, I went to an event of my men's group, a near stranger wandering into a club to which I was not sure I belonged. My marriage had ended, my business collapsed, my daughter grown estranged, but I was beginning to scribble ever more fervently. From across the room, several men came directly towards me, arms outstretched to embrace the writer whose words they had read, but not yet

Finding the Pot of Gold

2011-09-05T09:37:00.006-04:00

Starting with a swollen head and more rainfall, the day seemed like a slog through thigh deep mud until I realized it was the first anniversary of my mother's death. No matter how normal we want to be, there are times the quagmire is real and we just have to sink into it and allow the time to be what it is. The single blessing of Alzheimer's, I answer people's condolences, is that it gets you

Heart of Gold

2011-09-03T09:11:00.000-04:00

No sooner do I make the grand declaration of being a writer, then I suddenly spend my time in carpentry clothes. Projects on my own apartment, for a friend and for some quick cash from an old and loyal client keep me busy and distracted from the work where my heart authentically lies. Curiously, the energy in my finances dips immediately back into that frantic place of scramble I had known so

Out of the Pan

2011-08-17T09:39:00.002-04:00

In the time recovering from my surgery, I have studied intensively the options that the internet has created to market and distribute content. As a tired contractor with resources squandered and a writer/musician with exciting projects underway, it is particularly fascinating. The phrase describing a web reaching around the world is clearly accurate and there are those, regardless of quality,

Father into the Man

2011-08-14T10:10:00.010-04:00

Leaves are starting to change in Vermont, occasional splashes of color in an otherwise verdant landscape of green. The nights are cooler as Pleiades meteors streak under the full moon. Life cycles ever onwards year after year. Even as summer heat bares down and plants strain for sips of water, with the change in the air and the mums in the market, the first signs of winter clutch panic in me

Fire in the Heart

2011-08-03T08:34:00.005-04:00

As much as people poked fun at the dire predictions of certain fundamentalists that a particular day last April would be the world's demise at the hand of God, there are those who ridicule even more the date in December 2012 that is the day on the Mayan Calendar interpreted by others as the true end of the world. In addition to blockbuster movies closing on the scene of a futuristic arc floating