Circle of Family and Friends – You and Your Personal Community

This is not the first post about joy that I have recently written.  It's on my mind because of the seminars I do, the books I write and my own daily commitment to living  joyfully.  Obviously I believe it's attainable; and yet I know many who seldom express joy or even seek it.  I used to fall into that category and now I wonder why it took me so long to wake up. The minister at the church I attend spoke about joy today and posed these questions: "What's keeping you from feeling joy much of the time?" And "What is it that you do that does bring you joy?" Th[...]

I ponder the idea of detachment quite often.  It's been the topic in more than one of the books I have written, (see www.womens-spirituality.com, books section) and it is the primary topic in many of the workshops and lectures I do in the public arena.  I love the topic because it speaks to so many of us.  And even though my life is no longer consumed by my attachments to others, the past can become the present all too easily.  A "slip of the mind" can trigger the old behavior and I don't want to go there. I don't think I had ever heard the word "detachment[...]

I was at a great 12 step meeting last night where the topic was "opening our hearts" to the travelers on our path, whoever they might be.  I am personally convinced that we could heal the wounds of the world if every one of us offered a "heart-felt" expression even once a day.  It wouldn't be that difficult.  We could begin with the first person we see upon arising.  For many of us that would be a family member and how often do we walk right by them on our way to pouring that first cup of coffee without even acknowledging them with a kind "good morning."  We[...]

Every time I go to a meeting or receive a phone call from a friend or sit down at my computer to read comments on the posts I have written or open emails from readers who have been helped by one or another of my books, I sit back, stunned, by the impact of the changes that have occurred in my life simply because I got clean and sober.  I never, in my wildest dreams, expected to live the life I have been given.  And I no longer doubt that God orchestrated it all. There is simply no other reasonable explanation. I was thinking about this when my sisters and I w[...]