Posts Tagged ‘gratitude’

Writing Through Depression

You know what sucks? Depression, that’s what sucks. Each day, even in your brightest moments, there’s a gadfly buzzing around your head. Think about going through your life with every experience tempered just slightly of happiness. It’s an isolating task, and one that ensures you are alone in a crowd with the distinct awareness of…

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Powerful Words from a First Nations Elder

A year or two ago I was fortunate enough to hear elder Sykes Powderface speaking to a small group of mostly First Nations students at Exshaw School in the Canadian Rockies. He was telling them stories of growing up, of learning from his parents and grandparents, and the students sat riveted. When he asked them…

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No Hurry

This is going to sound out there, but whatever. A number of months ago I realized that I am the agent of joy in my life. While external factors can increase or decrease my momentary happiness, I have the capacity to impact the level of it over the long term. I can raise the bar…

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One Week

I do my best to keep things in check, balancing my highs and good times with probable periods of payback, the knowledge that nothing comes for free. I wouldn’t say I expect the worst to happen, but my habits over the years have laid the groundwork to be suspicious when the pendulum swings toward sunny…

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Arrival

Big sagebrush in a field doesn’t just smell like turkey dinner, its got a whole lot more to it than that. When you twist it and crush it in your fingers and you bring it to your nose there’ll be something like eucalyptus, maybe some mint, the citrus of lemon balm. These aren’t faint scents…

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The Old Dog, Again

The old dog panting at my feet. She’s uncomfortable. She always is. We think she can’t really feel her hind legs, and we think she has pain in her spine in the rear, her tail bits. She can’t tell us this of course, we’ve tried to become canine mind readers. She pants, and I reach…

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