What’s in the Water?
Guidance for Swimming Against the Stream
In waking up to whiteness, there are questions to answer and ideas to confront. Molly’s insights bring perspective and clarity.
You are precious, and so is everyone else
Inspired by my visit to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary: You are precious, unique in all the world, and valued beyond measure. And so is everyone around you. Don't just nod your head. Think about it. Take it in.
Reflection versus rumination
Reflection and rumination are very different styles of thinking. Rumination is locked in the past, a chewing over and reliving of old feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Reflection may begin with an existing concern--even a deep grief--but it faces outward rather...
A declaration of interdependence
A declaration of interdependence Last month, around the time I was wrestling with what to write here, 49 people were killed and many more were injured in an Orlando nightclub. My heart broke, and I went into something of a tailspin. For a few days I simply had nothing...
Are you an individual solving a problem or part of an unfolding miracle?
It is easy to become discouraged, frustrated, even resentful and angry when we face world problems as individuals fighting against an external ill. How can we hope to overcome such things as systemic racism, economic injustice, or the simple venality of human beings...
There’s not actually a conflict between anxiety and insight
Though it might seem like we need to make a choice between anxiety and an insight that can see through or behind our moment to moment experience, we really don't. Awareness takes care of things without effort or intervention.
The humbling truth: we are always doing our best
In every moment each human being is doing his or her level best. That's the humbling, magnificent, encouraging, discouraging truth. And the more deeply we see this, the more we access compassion for ourselves and others. The more compassion we experience, the nicer...
The Cat Box Insight
In which I recount my great cat box insight: in any given moment you either want to clean the cat box or you don't. Pretending that you are not doing what you choose to do just makes things unnecessarily complicated.
Navigating from a good feeling versus attachment to the feeling
Syd Banks talks about trusting a feeling. But there is a huge difference between noticing and navigating from that lovely feeling and being attached to the feeling itself.
The mystic’s paradox: if everything is okay, how come it looks so messed up?
Julian of Norwich is fabled for saying, "All is well, and all manner of things be well." I'm sure she'd be delighted to know that I agree. On some cosmic level everything is magnificent, amazing, and just peachy keen. And yet... And yet the heart aches--and...