“I’m so tired of being me,” I heard myself say. In that moment it was true. It was more of an observation than it was a complaint, but it was a complaint too, not so unlike saying ‘I’m so tired of sweeping the kitchen floor, over and over and over.’ My kitchen floor is getting […]
A woman in my dialogue circle shared something positive about her childhood that I didn’t experience in mine. Instead of being triggered by what I felt as a lack, I was able to feel happy for her that she was so fostered. The thought of what I had missed crossed my mind but I was […]
A dialogue circle is a microcosm of the larger circles of family, community and world. In circle, we each bring a piece to the woven living art of conversation. But is it the right piece? Is it true? How does my piece affect others? The dialogue circle I belong to is small enough, and the […]
The mysterious malady I was struck with last week that seemed to have both physical and emotional components has passed without aspirin, anti-depressants, or surgery. It was treated with one part poetry, one part private dance party (compliments of Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews), and an exceptionally dynamic monthly women’s dialogue. I didn’t want to […]
As far as I can determine, I’m a Jungian Taoist who might have been a Transcendentalist if I lived in the time of Emerson and Thoreau. I’m a cultural Catholic who believes in Divine Intelligence and accepts Evolution as fact. I believe a myth is a lie that tells the truth and in the radical […]
At Sunday’s dialogue circle, my friend Katherine told a story about running into a friend at the library who was carrying a stack of books about birds. “I’m so into birds. I can’t believe I’m going to be birdwatcher this late in life!” the elder woman announced passionately. Bird watching, an antidote for the grief […]
~ Note that real feelings can begin with depression. Reframe “weaker” feelings as a sign of progress. – The Pocket Enneagram My husband and I are shipwrecked in the hammock with no energy to save ourselves. It’s so hot and we’re so tired that we have to drop our extra baggage, drift aimlessly through the […]
My favorite part of the woman’s dialogue I belong to is the first few moments when we sit in silence and the chatter and activity of my life falls away. From the silence I arrive with no agenda and drop the baggage of personality and routine. I’d like to talk about the poetry of spring, […]
The reflection that the dialogue circle provides can be utilized as a fast moving current to move participants to the doorway to a transcendent awareness. Dialogue is talk that moves you forward! ~ Judy O’Brien Therapy or play? A salon or a café? A scientific laboratory or a book club? I don’t know what my […]
As a brain-based educator who developed an educational program on slavery, who speaks to her Avatar by way of meditation and facilitates group dialogue in communities, author Judy O’Brien has a stranger than fiction background. The spiritual journey she recounts in her autobiographical book “The Way of the Mystic” is compelling, but I was even […]
If someone like me with a logical and skeptical mind can believe in the afterlife, there might be something to it. As a child in Catechism Class – where I was forced to memorize and recite a litany of questions and answers that began with ‘WHO MADE YOU? GOD MADE ME’ – I thought Eve […]
My introduction into the world of archetypes came when I was a girl by way of fairytales and nursery rhymes. To this day Rumplestilskin and the Snow Queen repeatedly show up in my poetry. When I first saw the kiln at the university where my potter son was a student, memories were stirred of Hansel […]
