Another World is Probable

This weekend I had a small taste of what other people have been experiencing for the past year with this pandemic. Serenity, a cat I love and the closest I’ve come to a pet since I moved out of my parents’ house, died. Under normal circumstances, I would have been able to say goodbye to her in person but because of the pandemic, I said goodbye over Facetime. I keep thinking about an article I read...

I'm an empath as well as a highly sensitive person. (If you want to determine if you're one too, you can take a self-assessment test .) It’s challenging because it takes so much freaking effort for me to just live in the world. Things that other people don’t give a second thought – like going to a sports game back when we could do that safely – I have to weigh the pros and cons. Most of the time,...

I keep thinking about the notion that my higher power wants me to be happy, joyous, and free. Due to the trauma in my background, it’s a heck of a lot easier to think God wants me to be sad, miserable, and suffering. But is that really true? More in this week's post. 

Looking through my Facebook memories, it seems February is frequently a month that I walk along the razor’s edge of fear and faith. At any moment it’s easy for me to slip onto one side or another. It seems only fitting because February starts with the letter “F” after all. While watching TV this weekend, I heard a line that resonated with me: “Faith is worthless if left untested.” How true. More i...

On Saturday, I remarked to some friends of mine that I’ve spent nearly a year querying literary agents for my novel and no one wants to represent me. One of my friends chimed in, “yet. No one wants to represent you yet .” That word snagged my attention because there’s so much hope and faith wrapped up in three letters. “Yet” implies not now, but in the future. More in this week's post. 

If I’m being honest, I’m not doing that great. I woke up this morning with a swollen eyelid – not eyelids plural, just the one – I haven’t slept well for the better part of two weeks, I’m so tired my ears are ringing, and I’m pretty sure I’ll bite someone’s head off if they look at me funny. What's helping me is remembering the secret to meditation. More in this week's post.

When I was younger, anything felt possible. The future felt open, magical, and mysterious. However, then I became a bit of a cynic and the future has felt closed, prosaic, and straightforward. Now I'm coming back around and realizing with help, anything can happen. More in this week's post.

I’m resharing this post from September 2019 because once again, I find myself in a hallway, metaphorically speaking.  A close friend of mine used an analogy the other day that’s stuck with me. She said her higher power has closed a door in her life and hasn’t opened another one yet. That means for now she’s stuck in a hallway, waiting for another door to open. Yesssssss. That’s so my life rig...

I came across an article the other day I found incredibly inspiring considering what we’ve all lived/are living through. In Australia, for the first time in decades , Christmas bell flowers are blooming in high numbers because of the bushfires that raged through the area in late 2019, early 2020. I love this story because so often when it comes to devastation and destruction, in my mind, everythin...

As we enter this new year, I notice I feel pressure to be hopeful and optimistic. Because vaccines are here! And a new president is on his way! And 2020 is officially done! All of that is true, and yet neither the past nor reality change just because we flipped the calendar. We still carry with us everything that came before and much remains unknown. I’m reminded here of the quote by Rilke about l...

Right now I’m reminded exactly 13 years ago I was in Europe for a New Year’s retreat. I haven’t thought about that trip in years. I think it’s coming up now not only because of the date, but also due to my emotional landscape. I’m in a liminal space where I’ve left something behind, but I’m not yet fully in the something new, which if you think about it encapsulates this year. This is the last wee...

The monotony of life has been getting to me lately. I know for the most part what each day will bring: work, a walk, and a Zoom call. If variety is the spice of life, my life is pretty bland at the moment. There’s a pinch of variety in terms of decorating my apartment for the holidays, and FaceTiming with my family for Hanukkah, but otherwise it’s pretty monotonous over here. The question becomes...

We each have a light within us that is longing to burn ever brighter, to radiate within ourselves and those around us. In this holiday season, may you also remember the light being that you are. May you remember you are more than the sum of your parts, and may you also endeavor to shine a light on all parts of yourself.

As California enters its second lockdown, I keep thinking about freedom. What does it mean to be free? Some people would say it’s doing whatever you want, whenever you want. But is that really true? As you can likely guess based on the title of this post, I don't think it is. 

All week I’ve been thinking about the starfish story. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, keep listening. I've been thinking about that story and what it means for my life, for the writing I do. How making a difference doesn't have to be something grandiose in order to be meaningful. 

I had a conversation with a friend this weekend and was reminded that believing in materialism is a choice. We in the West take it for granted that materialism is the most scientific, rational way of being and that conversely, spirituality is unscientific and irrational. But is that really true? More in this week's post.

Instead of feeling sad about the pandemic, now I'm PISSED. And at the same time I'm also grateful for things that have happened as a result. Life is complicated. Or in other words, nuanced. More in this week's post. 

There are people in the U.S. who only identify with people who look like them, act like them, think like them. And for those who don’t, they’re demonized and denigrated. They are not a part of the “in” group. No one, myself included, is immune from groupism and it takes commitment to keep expanding the boundary of your identity. However, whenever I think about the world I want to live in, it alway...

I’m freaked out by the upcoming election and I know I’m not the only one. Democrats are worried Republicans will win. Republicans are worried Democrats will win. We are all watching this election closely. I don’t have any advice about that but what I can say is regardless of what happens, I feel soothed thinking about something I learned recently. It's called the 3.5% rule.

This week I’ve seethed with envy multiple times. That’s nothing new and if you’ve been listening this blog for a while you know I semi-regularly feel envy, especially regarding my career. When I see someone who has what I want, I don’t view it as a sign that I, too, can achieve what they achieved. I know I’m supposed to, but what can I say? I’m a flawed human being. As I’ve wrestled with the feeli...

You know that phrase, "Hitch your wagon to a star?" It's come to mean attach yourself to someone who is successful or famous in the hopes you'll become the same. I usually think of myself as the wagon and never the star. However, I'm coming to realize I don't need to hitch my wagon to anyone else because I'm my own star! More in this week's post. 

This past week I canceled a trip to Washington, D.C. I had planned for later this month. It was somehow the watershed moment for me as I’ve realized how much this year has taken from all of us. I’ve cried so many times this week. And at the same time this period is highlighting for me how precious time is. More in this week's post.

We don’t know what’s true anymore. And what’s so chilling is the inability to distinguish truth from untruth is by design as I learned recently from watching the documentary/drama The Social Dilemma . This week's post addresses that film so if you'd rather be surprised, don't listen!

I want to see people punished for their crimes but my spiritual teacher also says we don’t have the right to punish someone we do not love, and furthermore, the amount of punishment meted out must not exceed the amount of love we feel. Yikes. Why is that? More in this week's post. 

I feel a little discombobulated. On the one hand, it’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and a time for celebrating. On the other hand, I’m deeply troubled by what’s happening in the world: the rise in fascism, environmental catastrophes, and oh yeah, a global pandemic, which has not only killed numerous people, but has also led to unemployment and food insecurity. Is there room to feel both joy...