Holidays, despite the fun and joy and lights, can exacerbate the tensions within and between us. People are tired and expectations are high. Sometimes scenes we imagined would be warm and close present unexpected tension. When that happens, it can feel like our feet are stuck in the sand. Hard to move out of the situation or through it with …
Giving Yourself the Gift of Fuel for the Holidays
Just because you are reading this, I think you deserve congratulations for taking the time to read something just for you! No matter what your holiday traditions, this is a busy time! Which is why I ended up reading my own Flying Lesson #2 over again. It’s Bring Enough Fuel for the Journey. Here are some excerpts and thoughts …
Piloting Your Way Through the Holidays
How do we pace ourselves during this holiday season so that we can “fly” through busy schedules, family relationships, celebrations and sometimes travel? After all, the body doesn’t know the difference between “good” and “bad” stress. What it does note is an imbalance. To fly a plane, a pilot has to master the controls of four forces of flight that …
The Story of the Sand Spirits
I walk along the Pacific coast of the Baja peninsula. The stones at my feet are thrown across the sand like a random galaxy, and I connect their dots, picking out constellations. As the tide encroaches, waves wash up stones and other objects. Suddenly, I have company—a mystical sand woman! Her head is a glowing coral stone that seems to …
A Little Story of a Different Lens
My friend and assistant Cynthia Wheeler was in Encinitas CA with me this week, enjoying a respite from the Tucson heat and enjoying the beach. The other morning she came back from a walk breathless with excitement. “I met a young woman on the beach, “ she said, “who saw me taking pictures of the sand spirits I found in …
Nature and your power of self-reflection
I’m at the beach right now, so I am seeing scenes like this and reveling in being near the ocean, which I have loved deeply all my life. When I was little, I “found God” at the ocean. When I looked out at the horizon, I thought it was so wide an infinite that God must live there. The ocean …
What form or figure do you see in this photograph? Yes, it’s just sand and pieces of seaweed. And no, I did not arrange them. Nature did! Some people see a flower. Others see a pregnant woman. I always see an archer, whose bow is drawn, the arrow ready to fly. All the answers are RIGHT! What you see is …
Humor and style
This is one of my favorite Sand Spirit images! I talked about this one at a recent presentation at the Escape! conference for cancer survivors and advocates. They were an inspiring and humbling group of people who have been through a daunting spectrum of challenges. Not only have they navigated these with incredible grace, but the participants all were accepted …
A Guardian Angel for 2011
Happy 2011! How interesting this experiment is becoming. I’m taking the Sand Spirits images in order, putting one up each week and reflecting on how each one might give guidance to our lives. So here we are on the first day of 2011, and up comes Sand Spirit #4, one of my favorites. For me, this one has always been …
