The Wisdom of Giving Your Child a Sword to Play With Instead of a Gun
There is a great debate amongst the educators and parents I present to about children playing with guns. In fact, it may be the hottest of all debates (even more than whether to allow children to go up slides!). Does playing with guns support or hinder child development? More so, how might a child playing with guns today impact society tomorrow? As a boy, I remember happily playing with guns. Whether it was with my cork gun shooting cans in my backyard or playing war with plastic guns with my friends, I only have good memories. Gunplay was a means of using my imagination, connecting with others, and being in nature. Looking back now, however, I view those times from mature hindsight, with a depth […]
Maybe It’s Not Meant to Be Solved ~ Surrendering to the Heartbreak of Not Having the Answer
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” ~ Frank Herbert “If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders.” ~ Andrew Harvey Maybe the problems we face are not meant to, nor can be solved. Our determined beliefs tell us otherwise. We can solve our flat tire and painstakingly slow computer, and we are fortunate to have our broken leg fixed at the hospital. These are relatively simple issues to deal with. But the same linear, quick-fix mindset from which we approach these human dilemmas […]
Lost in a Sea of Wild Grace ~ Dying in the Arms of Mystery
“The more uncertain I have felt about myself, the more there has grown up in me a feeling of kinship with all things.” ~ Carl Jung It is perfectly reasonable and most natural to not know something. Being unclear is a gift. We remain open to the unexpected. We remain open to Life. My fulfillment does not lie in what I have learned; it does not come from what I have gained, knowledge or otherwise. Rather, my fulfillment arises from how much I get out of the way, have unlearned; how much I clear the heartache of separation keeping me from whence I came. * * * Fading away past stories, pain and the clutter of accumulated concepts I find myself opening further to something […]
When Kids Long for Your Ignorance More than Your Knowledge
“It’s only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.” ~ Henry David Thoreau A friend unreservedly praised her wise young daughter while proudly showing me a picture of this rising star. Only 18 years of age, she, at the time, had already left home, knowing, as she had for many years, exactly where she wanted to live—in the progressive community of Nelson, Canada, amongst others she held as like-mind. With a wistful smile, my friend recounted an outstanding mindset her daughter had which she relentlessly advised her mother of—“question everything”; to look beyond the literal, the surface features of life, and sense that lying beyond the veil of reality most in the West traditionally acquiesce to. This young seeker knew there […]
The Darkening World Needs Less of Your Fight and More of Your Light
“You cannot change the world. You can only allow it to be changed through you.” ~ Lynda Austin As the darkness of this troubling world only gets darker, the old mechanisms you’ve dedicatedly hung your hat on may no longer work or be enough to be the change agents our world needs. While helpful and necessary, it won’t be enough to simply advocate for change, to protest with your impassioned speeches, to spread your important messages on social media. It won’t be enough to continue pushing and fighting in the way you always have in your community, in your vocation. Certainly not without an imperative inner shift. Something more is needed of us now that is far from personal, and beyond our understanding. Only light […]
There is Knowledge, and then there is Knowing ~ Learning to Trust and Make Space for Your Inner Wisdom
“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” ~ Sandra Carey There is knowledge, and then there is knowing. Knowledge is finite. It is the facts of life: a butterfly has two wings; Earth is round; the sky is blue. Knowledge has defined edges, beginnings and endings, a specific this is it; it is information the mind grasps in completeness… until it doesn’t; for our understanding of things evolves. One day we live in a geocentric solar system, and then the next day it is the sun, not the Earth, the planets revolve around. One day our knowledge informs us that we must spank children. The next day this is considered cruel. Like a monkey, […]
How Trusting Intuition Saved One Boy’s Life ~ The Power and Mystery of Living from the Still Small Voice Within
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein A few weeks ago I was presenting an intuition playshop to a group of 40 child care workers at a conference. One of the activities required participants to walk up to different people and share whatever intuitive insights they may have for them. What was shared was to be seen as a gift that may serve the receiver in some way. The insight could be a word, phrase, color, image, feeling etc. One of the participants, Katharine, offered, “blue car” to someone named Carol. As the words came to Katharine’s mind and were […]
Embracing the Space Between ~ Falling Into a Sea of Possibilities
Everything you want is in the space between. When you embrace the emptiness of space, you fall into the fullness of space, and all it holds for you. It is often without our choosing that we are forced into the space between. Maybe we have lost a job, or a relationship, or the dream we have held so long. But in what appears to be nothing but an empty space, when embraced, lies a universe of possibilities greater than the plans we’ve conjured up. What if emptiness was productive? Opportunistic? It doesn’t sound so, and certainly it goes against all our upbringing and the values of our society to believe so. But what if by allowing things to sit, to simmer, we discover what we […]
Intending with an Open Mind ~ Detaching from Form & Opening to Learning
You don’t always get what you want. But you always get what you need. When setting our goals or intentions for the year, we often get caught up in what we want instead of what we really need. Our purpose is to grow, or evolve as souls. This is the Big Agenda in life. Our career, relationships, health and finances are gateways – they are the little agendas (or forms). When we are attached to the form of what we want, we are not open to the larger plan of our life which invariably focuses on our evolutionary needs. Set your intentions, but do not be attached to the form in which they manifest. Instead, be committed to your inner growth – to learning through […]
Your Real Power ~ Redefining Power Through Play
“We are powerful beyond measure, and so deeply vulnerable at the same time. This may seem like a dichotomy, but it isn’t. We have misunderstood real power. It has been something assertive, non-surrendering, pushing on through. This is not real power. This is simply willfulness. Real power is something else- receptivity, openness, the courage to keep your heart open on the darkest of days, the strength to feel it all even when the odds are stacked against you. Real power is showing up with your heart on your sleeve and absolutely refusing to waste one moment of your life hidden behind edginess and armour.” ~ Jeff Brown Play connects us to our Real Power. The spirit of a child is open-hearted, receptive, vulnerable and sensitive. […]