Personal Development

  • Free Hearted

    When I finally take a moment to listen To the bump, bump, bump in my chest There is a question louder than expected, Where have you been? In my head, I reply. Refining my ability to be ambivalent. I read more about people like Angelina Jolie Than I know about the war in Iraq. I am…

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  • Just typing the word desperate makes me feel uneasy. It’s a word I am wholly uncomfortable with because I do not identify myself that way. I’m capable, self-sufficient and charming. Who would want to identify themselves as feeling anything like desperation? (Just ask Teri Hatcher or Eva Longoria.) But yet, we all hold a kernel…

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  • When you’re driving on the interstate and the lane you’re in ends in five hundred feet, do you get over into the next lane as soon as you can or do you stay in your lane until it ends before moving over? I always believed the right thing to do was to get over as…

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  • Visualize the Impossible

    If you’ve ever been to a psychologist’s office or read a self-help book, you’ve probably come across the concept of visualization as a technique for creating change in your life. In the sixth grade, I was very ill. I spent a lot of time in and out of the different hospitals and various doctors’ offices…

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  • I have a thing for bears. It started years ago when I lived in Boise, Idaho. I was working for a book store with a woman quite a few years older. I saw her as a mentor. She was going through a separation from her husband and had moved from a big house in the…

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  • When I saw your scruffy face on the shelter’s website I thought you were the one. A virtual match connecting you to me, You busy little bee. Your golden hair and your button nose Imprinted in my memory. One simple picture, one slightly too-perky name. A sign, a wish, a silent hope That you would…

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  • Do You Want to Know a Secret?

    Okay, I admit it. I was inspired to write about secrets because of Project Runway. I know it’s on Lifetime now, but I don’t care. I’m a loyal fan of the show. As far as reality shows are concerned, at least this one has fashionable people who are talented, creative, unafraid to speak their mind…

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  • “Someone else’s experience is always a reflection. Your own experience is your reality. The physical world is always a reflection. Your inner world is the reality.” — John-Roger I’ve been thinking about this quote all week. Not every minute of the day, but it keeps showing up in my head reminding me how true it is,…

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  • I Don’t Need Your Permission

    Yesterday morning, a new friend told me, “You don’t need permission to live the life you want to life.” I had to think about this for quite some time before I realized that on some level, I am waiting to get some “stamp of approval” so I can do what I want, when I want,…

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  • “We are conditioned to look out in the world for the source of our fulfillment. And when things don’t go the way we want, we try to find someone or something to blame. Attempting to control is trying to make life work. But life already works. Placing the blame outside ourselves is a misguided attempt…

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