Dear Friends, May these messages bring you new perspectives, upliftment, and support in your efforts to bring love, trust, and the best of who you are to life and to those around you.
New YouTube Video: The Inside Track
Dear Friends, When someone speaks, what do you hear… and what do you feel? There are two levels to every interaction. On the surface, we exchange pleasantries and share data with each other. But much more is actually flowing between us. Below the surface are emotional undercurrents of how each of us feels physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This deeper content is rarely mentioned, but if …
Love Actually IS the Answer
Poets and mystics have said, “Love is the answer.” That rings true, in a lofty, abstract sort of way. But when the world is going up in flames, metaphorically and literally, an abstract answer isn’t what we need. And still, love actually is the answer, a very real, down-to-earth answer. The trouble is, we can’t see it that way until we’re willing to recognize the …
Latest YouTube Offering: “Show Me the Ashes, I’ll Show You the Phoenix”
Dear Friends, We are constantly trying to get what we want out of life, in myriad ways. We are always hoping to achieve self-fulfillment through personal striving. And then, when each attempt fails, we dust ourselves off and try again, a little differently each time. But there’s something fundamentally wrong with the entire psychology behind our efforting, and all of it is doomed to fail. …
We Shouldn’t Need to Bend Ourselves Out of Shape to be “Normal”
Dr. C, my family’s physician, was in a class by himself. He and I always spent the first fifteen or twenty minutes of my appointments just sitting and chatting, before he ever examined me. He was interested in health, not sickness, and that’s what he promoted. And that’s how he lived: He was a dedicated runner and swimmer and rode his bike to work every …
Watch on YouTube: “Freedom Is from the Past, in the Heart”
Dear Friends, When people go into therapy or personal reflection, looking for the cause and hopefully the solution to their personal problems, they usually find a cause outside themselves. Something from their past—some hurtful situation, some traumatic event—that now limits them. The trouble is, the past is over. Nothing about it can be changed. So whatever caused their problems is still causing their problems. In …
Pleasure: A Hidden Test of Love
It’s obvious to everyone that difficulty puts love to the test. But who suspects that pleasure also tests our love? Almost no one. And that’s why we’re blindsided when we’re tested by pleasure, and we so often flunk the felicity test. We’re not used to thinking of pleasure as a test of love. Isn’t love a wonderful source of pleasure, and a great pleasure in …
Possessiveness: Selfishness Disguised as Commitment
I still feel a twinge when I think of my high school best friend, Sharon (not her real name). After graduation life pulled us in different directions, and we lost track of each other. But we managed to find each other several years later, and we had a visit I’ll never forget. Sharon told me about her successful professional life and her marriage, which she …
Martyrdom: Selfishness Disguised as Service
We human beings are kind, generous, and serviceful by nature. It’s in our DNA to give freely to those we love, to those in need, and ultimately, to everyone in our lives. When done in the right spirit, it’s our pleasure to give. And the pleasure is mutual. But some people are literally “generous to a fault.” They carry giving too far. They exhaust themselves; …
Now on YouTube: “Looking through the Anals of Human History”
Dear Friends, Everyone who reviews human history sees a saga of suffering, difficulty, and trouble—which seems to repeat itself, and never gets far from the same old SHIT. Are we stuck with such a terrible destiny? David Truman says NO! In this talk, he identifies the cause of all the suffering and the way to avoid repeating the same destiny. It’s the way exemplified by …