The Golden Time by Stephanie Kaza “Now the days are growing shorter and the sky is speaking of winter. Change hangs in the air with a question mark. The harvest is in, and the season of waiting begins. This is the tender tie of year, when everything drops away. The trees are left bare and…
Feasting (ahem…overindulging…ahem) is a large part of the holiday season. When done right it’s a delightful way in which to feel pampered and special, to celebrate and congregate, to share good times and make things merry. Taken to excess…well…it becomes excessive. Besides the not so hilarious holiday stories, the gastric distress, and the possible hangover…
Just doing something doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. Just ask a hamster if you’re confused about that. Going to the gym doesn’t mean you’ll lose weight, going to the mall doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the right thing, and meditating doesn’t mean that you’ll reach enlightenment or even find yourself. (BTW…you’re sitting there meditating. So you’re…
One of the things which the busy-ness of the Christmas/Hanukkah season distracts us from is experiencing the unexpected delights that appear around us. When we’re so busy getting to here, sending things there, getting things done so we can do other things, we tend to not even see what is around us other than as…
Christmas time is such a balancing act. Everyone becomes a juggler trying to keep all the balls moving in the right pattern at the right time. Well, sometimes it feels like juggling handkerchiefs and sometimes it feels like chain saws, but let’s go with racket balls or something for now, ok? Another thing that we…
One of the many traditions of Christmas season is the stories. We read Christmas stories to our children, we watch Christmas cartoons, there are Christmas episodes of our favorite shows and there are Christmas movies galore. I’m into irreverence so I enjoy Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as well as Scooby Doo Christmas specials of…
Martin Buber: Between Man and Man Each of us is encased in an armour whose task is to ward off signs. Signs happen to us without respite, living means being addressed, we would need only to present ourselves and to perceive. But the risk is too dangerous for us, the soundless thunderings seem to threaten…
I talked with a client recently who had an aha! moment during the session where she recognized she was trying to make the lovely new man who had come into her life an answer to everything that wasn’t working in her life. You know, the prince who comes to take the princess away so they…
Ever notice that spouses, significant others, and children will tell you all year long what they want ad naseum? But when it comes to Christmas time it’s like they all become Buddhist monks not attached to anything except the need to shrug and say “I don’t know. Whatever you want to get me is fine…”…
There is a lot of resignation and long-suffering and just going through the motions that happens at Christmas time. Some people like conflict and to stir things up, most have enough to do making sure the holidays happen they way they are supposed to and when the day comes they just want to slide into…