perception

Last summer, I watched wren families move into a nesting box. First, they took out what was already in the box. They were so industrious. For hours the wren would pop in and then pop out with old nesting material in her beak. She’d toss her head to throw it and then pop back in [...]

On the way to yoga, I saw a man walking down the street proudly displaying his political affiliation. It was not mine. So for a split second, I judged him. And then I judged myself for judging him. A few blocks away, I stopped judging us both and thought about perception. Yes, my favorite topic. [...]

While the Soleis traveled as slowly as possible, the Eos was moving as quickly as it could. So fast sometimes, Meg wished that it would slow down. Like Stryker, she didn’t like ships either, and for many of the same reasons. Mostly, she hated the rocking and rolling. No matter what she did, she constantly [...]

The answer is yes; you’re probably doing everything backwards. Which makes life much harder than it needs to be. It’s time to stop working against ourselves. The way to do that is to be flexible before strong. I mean this both literally and figuratively. I’m serious. Being a business and life coach for almost thirty [...]

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. I choose, therefore I am. —Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe I wanted to change the world. But I found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. —Aldous Huxley We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go [...]

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. The man who has no imagination has no wings. —Muhammad Ali Here is the question you might, and probably should be, asking yourself. Why bother with learning how to be an Imagination Master? What practical use could being a master of imagination be in [...]

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.—Rabindranath Tagore She was always-on-call. I wanted to be like her, but I had no idea how I could handle what she [...]

Once upon a time, there lived a husband and wife who were very good friends. Their names were Agatha and Winston. Agatha was a small, very round, gray bear who loved to amble through flower gardens smelling the flowers and petting the bees. Winston was a tall rather saggy and unstuffed brown bear. This unstuffedness [...]

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. When you come to a fork in the road, take it. —Yogi Berra When you face a fork in the road, step on the exhilarator! —Pat Riley Ready—Set—Shift. Why not change our point of view? After all, who really wants to live in a [...]

A Perception Parable Once upon a time there was a very handsome and proud bullfrog that lived on a lily pad in the middle of a large silver lake. He was known throughout all the land as the frog with the prettiest skin and the most beautiful eyes and he was very proud of both. [...]

Throughout the years I have talked about the jail we put ourselves in because of our beliefs and perceptions. So when someone ticks me off because of what they are doing or saying—and lord only knows we have enough of that going on—and my righteous anger and upset wants to kick in and judge what [...]

At our resent Shift Gathering Retreat, Del had the members of the group sit outside for about fifty minutes every day. Their task was to be still in nature, and to note what they saw, felt, smelled, and touched. In addition, they were to notice where they were sitting within the bigger landscape. Each person [...]

One night I dreamed about a mouse. That’s all I remembered about the dream – a mouse telling me, “One thing at a time.” Del, with his years of nature and American Indian study, shared the meaning of mouse with me. It turns out that one thing at a time is exactly what a mouse [...]

We know the story. A man named Jesus, while dying on a cross, said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”* It astonished those who heard him speak. They expected him to speak words of condemnation, and he did not. That is amazing, especially when we think how difficult it can sometimes [...]

Outside my window, the trees were swaying, the clouds were racing across the sky, and the bird feeder was barely staying attached to its post. As I watched these events, it occurred to me that if I didn’t know about the force called wind, I might say that mystery and magic was at work. Why [...]

Starting in my early teens, and lasting for the next 25 years or so, I collected words and saved them. I read the newspaper and clipped articles that moved me, ideas that opened my eyes, essays that inspired me, and pasted them all into a big journal type book. I read books, watched movies, went [...]

All winter the blue storage box sat alone on the floor of the garage, calling me. Years before, my husband and I, on our way to more traveling, had left it with my daughter for safekeeping. She returned it in the fall, but I didn’t open it, knowing it would require something from me that [...]