Category Archives: Dog

Something Good

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Charter for Compassion

This isn’t something new, just something worth reminding you about, and as important now (or more?) as it was two years ago.

Reboot Program Resource

“Rebooting” is what Joe Cross from the documentary Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead called his juice fast, and this website is inspired by the film. Even if you don’t want to do a fast, just want to eat healthier, be healthier, this site is a great resource. I started with this page: Simple Eating Guidelines. (P.S. This site seemed to be having some hiccups today, so hopefully the link will work for you).

Naked Mango & Veggie Smoothie

As you may have heard, I am contemplating doing a juice fast. In preparation, I bought a bunch of premade juices to see what combinations I might like. I tried this one this morning, and it was like drinking sunshine.

Sunday Services with Ronna Detrick

She describes these this way: “Smart, engaging conversation about topics that matter.” She’s talked with a few of my favorite people. It’s worth a listen.

Fiona the Blind Trash Can Dog Rescued

Last year, Eldad and Audrey Hagar found Fiona — sick, blind, flea-infested and covered in grime — in a trash heap in South Los Angeles, and rescued her. If you have been reading this blog for more than a day, you already know that I love dogs with my whole heart. I resisted watching this video at first, but was so happy I finally did. Yes, it broke my heart, made me weep, but the ending is so so happy.

GoD and DoG

I can’t share that story without sharing this video, and if you watched the one about Fiona, you’ve already got a tissue. Amen, Bow Wow.

The Art of Getting Creatively Unstuck, by Justine Musk

Yes, another article by Justine Musk, but like I’ve said before, she’s on fire. How can I help it, how can I not love her? How can I when she is so brilliant and her website tagline is “because you’re a creative badass”?

The Rule of H.A.L.T.

This is actually something from Alcoholics Anonymous, and I’ve also seen it used in the context of developing healthy eating habits, but I realized this weekend that it might prove useful to anyone trying to change a habit, take better care of themselves, learn balance. The A.A. intent is to keep yourself from relapsing as an alcoholic, but I think it would also work to keep yourself from doing whatever it is you do that’s not healthy, not in your best interest, would help to keep you from getting hooked by whatever it is, from giving in to old behaviors or ways of being that no longer serve you: “Don’t become too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.” It’s a good rule for taking care of yourself in general, enit?

Why PLAY is a matter of life & death

In a comment on this post on Unicorns for Socialism, I told Alexandra that it’s like the universe keeps whispering in her ear “write this” as a roundabout way to get me the exact message I need. I had read the original piece she references here, but the reminder was so welcome. Go ahead and ignore everything else on today’s list, but you should absolutely read both posts, Alexandra’s and the original. She shares the five wishes from “The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying” by Bronnie Ware, (who went on to write a whole book on the subject after making her original post). The top five are this:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself —
not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Assuming this list is utterly true, what are a few things you might start doing differently?

Songs I Love Right Now

I had a few videos I wanted to share this week, like a cover of Hall and Oates “I Can’t Go For That” by Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers:

And my new favorite song, “Feel So Close” by Calvin Harris:

But that wasn’t enough, so I made you a “mix tape.” Have your own Monday dance party, be a one person flash mob, start a spontanious disco in the hallway at work. Enjoy! P.S. I apologize that there are a few commercials in the mix, but I wanted to include the original videos when I could: Songs I Love Right Now.

Gratitude Friday

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This post is a mashup of The Little Bliss List and Joy Jam, and as such is meant to celebrate: the little things that brought me hope and happiness this week, the sweet stuff of life, those small gifts that brought me joy this week. By sharing them, I not only make public my gratitude, but maybe also help you notice your own good stuff and send some positive energy out into the world.

1. Sunday’s hike. I wrote about it here, and am still riding on the high of that day, almost a week later. Something big softened and shifted for me that day, and I’m so grateful it did. It was magic. It was medicine.

2. The fresh start of Spring. Everything is coming out and alive again, and it’s early enough in the warm season that we can sit in the back yard in the evenings without having to fight the mosquitoes. A few nights ago, I sat on the back step in kind of a funk, until all three of my boys came out to play, ran around the yard, chasing each other and wrestling and rolling in the grass, and my whole mood lifted, and my heart felt so light, both full and open. It was magic. It was medicine.

3. My 6:30 am yoga class. I’ve been going for over four years now, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, and even though people have come and gone (and then come back again), there is a pretty consistent group of people. If I am in a bad mood, they always cheer me up. If I am struggling, they always manage to help me shift things, soften me up. This morning in shavasana, with Deva Premal singing and our teacher moving around the room adjusting our shoulders, all of us relaxed and wrapped up in blankets, resting together after practice like naptime in preschool, my heart swelled with love and thanks. It was magic. It was medicine.

4. Video by Susannah Conway in my Blogging from the Heart class. She only makes a few during the course of the class, but it’s so nice to see her face, her smile, hear her voice (she has the most divine accent) and her laugh. She’s smart and funny and kind. This week’s video had me in tears, not because of the subject matter, but because of her–the way she reminds me to love myself, to trust my worth, to have faith in my dreams. It was magic. It was medicine.

5. The Universe says “yes,” again. I was having a rough morning, one of those mornings when the nasty voices of doubt and self-criticism swirl around my head like a nest of yellow-jackets. Then I turned on my computer and saw that one of my very favorite people, someone whose work, her life and her self, her way of being in the world, inspires me and encourages me, had subscribed to follow my blog. I was both humbled and excited, and it truly felt like a reminder from the Universe that yes, I am doing what I need to, what I should, what I have to, yes, this is the right way, keep going. It was magic. It was medicine.

6. “Contemplative Arts Teacher.” Practicing in the Shambhala tradition, contemplative art is not a new concept to me. And, similarly, the idea that there are teachers for each specific tradition isn’t a surprise. However, this past week, I stumbled across a website (can’t even remember how or where now) where the author described herself as a Contemplative Arts Teacher. It felt a little like it did when I was in the 2nd grade and realized that the books I loved reading so much where written by “authors,” people whose job it was to write. I became aware of this new possibility, and felt a longing, deep and true, felt like something I had always wanted without being fully conscious of it had been revealed and named. Gobsmaked. It was magic. It was medicine.

7. Another reminder that while everything is impermanent, and reality can be messy and hard, everything is also beautiful and brilliant. As Pema Chödrön so perfectly says, things “come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

I watched Rocky go last Friday, felt his heart stop, which brought me right back to having to let Obi go, and then losing Kelly, but in that grief is also so much love, so much grace. And yesterday, I watched this video, of Honey the Great Dane and her kitty best friend Lemon, born on the same day and raised together. The end of the story is so sad, with Lemon contracting a mysterious virus and passing at age five, but what is so wonderful is watching them interact and be friends, playing and lounging, being together so happily. It reminded me that while our time together is so short and loss hurts, there is so much love and joy, too. It was magic. It was medicine.