Many people, young and old, struggle with the whole notion of identity. Who am I? What should determine how I present myself to the world? Where do I fit in? Do I belong anywhere? As young people struggle with life directions and career choices, these can feel like awkward and difficult questions. Similarly, many [...]
Relationships: Purpose versus Drama “What’s the point?” A man recently asked me this rhetorical question. We were discussing that age-old topic – relationships. In this case he was talking about whether or not he should stay with his girlfriend. I knew he didn’t really expect me to answer with a yes or no. In fact [...]
How about another self-help book? Maybe Ten Ways to Improve your Love-life or Seven Essential Tips for Losing Weight? Or Become a Leader with these 10 Important Steps? Or how about Seven Tips on How to Lose Friends and Gain Enemies? All joking aside, we live in a culture that is obsessed with self-improvement. The [...]
Many of you, I am sure, have experienced loneliness even when you are with others. It is that something deep in you is not met, not seen, not answered by the one you are with, leading to a feeling of sorrow, emptiness or disappointment. The whole matchmaking and dating industry is founded on this deep-seated [...]
Why are some of our most challenging relationships with family members? “Aren’t family members supposed to love and support you? Aren’t they the ones who are supposed to understand you the best and be there for you through thick and thin?” This was a question from a young person in my acquaintance who has constant [...]
“It sucks!” This was the valuation of a young person recently who was commenting on a life situation she was finding particularly difficult. I had to agree. But the part she was missing, was the lesson or learning that was embedded in the experience. When someone is suffering, the last thing they usually want to [...]
In an earlier blog I referred to the duality inherent in life. Too bad we couldn’t just all wait for Grace and know that it would happen! Well, actually if we really trusted that it would, it would. The trouble is that a hoary thing, called the complex, which is the polar opposite of [...]
In my last blog entry I talked about the importance of asking for help from a higher power. In Jungian parlance, this is often referred to as the Self, the divine presence within all of us. Others imagine or conceptualize God in their own way. I think the key thing is having that connection open [...]
Peter and I were walking our dog down a country road last night. It was a balmy spring evening, and the light was still glowing. We were talking about a mutual friend, and I was lamenting the difficulties she was facing. He said, ‘ Can’t you say ‘that’ to her?’ and I said of [...]
'A SLEEP OF PRISONERS' CHRISTOPHER FRY The human heart can go the lengths of God... Dark and cold we may be, but this Is no winter now. The frozen misery Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move; The thunder is the thunder of the floes, The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring. Thank God our [...]