My Heartsongs

Unlikely I will ever be a great writer or a Famoso musical pop star, so why bother? Yes, I do get some joy from the creative process itself, but the motivation to keep honing the craft? Well, I must admit that comes and goes. Psychologists even have a term for our familiar yet elusive sense of dissatisfaction: the hedonic treadmill.

Things are moving quickly, requiring more focused world attention on H5 N1. While a human pandemic is not inevitable, there are a number of milestones that have recently been achieved that suggest it is no longer just a remote possibility.

It is estimated that 55 million people worldwide have dementia, and according to the CDC, 1 in 9 Americans over age 65 has it. I discuss some really amazing progress that is being made.

I am always amazed at the layers that peel off when I do a vacation—that is to say, vacate my normal life and shift gears to a different pace and reality. It is quite surprising when I observe and discover that in fact I have been in a certain amount of denial about what I have been carrying on my shoulders. 

The AI robotic interplay is currently highly focused on the push to develop spatial intelligence—the ability for machines to correctly interpret and successfully interact with the everyday world. Virtual worlds with virtual robots allow for quicker and inexpensive trial and error training. Incredible implications for all of us!

There are so many essential skills we need to teach our children: self-awareness and sensory processing that supports development of compassion, empathy and emotional fluency; Cultivating inner peace, basics of self-healing and the power of intending; stewardship of the natural world, service to others, and an engagement with creative expression. Link mentioned in the podcast: https://www.linkedin...

Welcome to the Cosmic blast diner, where economic collapse, ecological meltdown, or your choice of a variety of complex upheavels or apocalyptic catastrophes are on the menu, with uncertainty and disturbance as appetizers. Link mentioned in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r2q31xb7hA

I have some salient suggestions for the coming year, as a new beginning awaits us in just a few days as we enter 2025 full of HOPES: homage, oasis, perseverance, exultation and schmick. Link mentioned in the podcast to UNM Med School commencement: https://myheartsongs.org/press-and-media/  

The spiritual journey takes one down a rabbit hole of mysterious occurrences and unknown destinations, a quest initiated by the big what’s it all about Alfie questions, married to an unwillingness to blindly accept the cookie cutter explanations of the powers that be. Primatologist short video mentioned in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg  

Consensual reality: those agreements humans collectively make in order to be flexible and create webs of cooperation. In fact, that trait is likely what has enabled us to dominate the planet. Money and laws, for example, those myths and stories that are woven into the fabric of daily life.

As we dance our way through holiday doings, here are some suggestions to perhaps make that journey more pleasant. Connecting with supportive family and friends is more meaningful to my mental health than the endless commercial consumer onslaught of the season.

For millennia, what killed humans were variations on the unholy triad of famine, pestilence and war. That has now changed. The effects of our disregard for our planetary home contribute to a host of chronic ailments.

The reality is that we often can’t keep up with baby, infant, toddler and early childhood energy, and so we are failing them on some level from the beginning, even with a support village behind us. Their endless curiosity and boundless explorations once mobile can be exhausting.

As I continue the slow recovery from my mystery virus, I am deeply reminded that the health care system, despite its many flaws, continues to produce miracles

So if, in these unfolding moments, words can’t express the turmoil and transcendence within, then perhaps creating something beautiful can. I simply must reconfigure and expand my imagination of the possible.

I also have finally admitted that I have been experiencing some election anxiety. Anxious is not a normal state for me, especially mid-night or when waking up. My default is more a dark Sicilian down mood. Yet I have been stoking the fires so to speak by regularly checking in about polls and headlines in the latest verbal battles between candidates.

Some adventuring in the Cruces Basin on a horseback muzzle loader elk hunt. Will it be my last?

It seems that one of the songs we must learn to dance to as we age is some degree of memory loss.  Paying attention to good sleep, exercise habits, stress levels, diet, and other essentials of nurturing the mind-body connection can mitigate the memory marbles dissipation. I explore some other tips to keep the memory muscle toned.

I have few regrets in my life, but one of them is clearly having spent so much time indoors, somewhat divorced from the planet and all the gifts that its wild generate within me, just by being a witness to their incredible magnificence.

I have been blessed with many wild encounters and wish to share a few of them today. I am left wondering about the tales you might tell, dear listener, of your encounters with the wild, and how they inspired, nourished and spoke to your deepest yearnings. What a magical planet we inhabit!

I Am The Sum Of My Experiences. I am wondering if this is really true or just a very lovely compelling phrase. I guess I don’t believe it is a simple sum game. Certain experiences seem to have much more impact on us as humans, especially those during critical periods of development.

Last week I offered 5 external aspects of crafting a good life, including where one lives, discover one’s passions, find a compatible mate, engage with one’s tribe, and finally, travel to broaden and deepen oneself in many diverse ways. Today I want to share the complementary five inner domains to develop and embody for a good life. They are gratitude, forgiveness, mourning, joy and healthy bounda...

What constitutes a good life? What choice points, and perhaps the use of intuition in decision making as described last week, might get one there?

In our age of bewilderment, is human intuition merely an advanced form of pattern recognition? A biochemical collection of perceptive algorithms? What might stimulate and enhance its development?

VUCA characterizes and reflects upon the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions, and how enterprises might flourish despite those challenges. The military also found the term useful, and incorporated it into their training as well. Here I attempt to make it relevant to personal challenges.