happy

It makes good sense to figure out how to love yourself. After all, at the end of the day, that’s all we can really control when it comes to love. It’s impossible to make someone else love you, no matter how hard you try – but we always have control over the love – and the hate – we give. So why is it so hard to really, truly, madly, deeply extend a bit of the love that we’ve got…

People often prefer a very limited, punishing regime—rather than face the anxiety of freedom. — Jean-Paul Sartre Along with the joy of freedom is a fear of the unknown. Freedom can be both exhilarating and unnerving. The conflict runs deep. When a rabbit runs free, it has to watch for the hawk. Huntergatherers feared going too far afield, knowing they might encounter wild beasts or danger from other clans. Gandhi said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not…

I recently read Parker Palmer’s book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, a beautiful meditation on trusting our experience to guide the way to our true calling. Rather than telling your life what you intend to do with it, Palmer suggests, you must “listen for what it intends to do with you.” Reflecting on his own encounters with self-doubt, deep depression, jubilant triumphs, and unrelenting inner inquiry, he paints a portrait of a personal journey that…