By Shae Hadden
I don’t want to look in the mirror today. There’s a funny old woman staring back at me, and I can’t quite figure out who she is or where she belongs. Certainly not in my mirror! But there she is, plain as day. Wrinkled and wizened, meditating for nothingness, yet still wanting to save the world.
Perhaps I should do as Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki suggests:
"To stay young,
To save the world,
Break the mirror."
© 2009 Shae Hadden. All rights reserved.
By Kevin Brown | Bio
In last week’s post, I defined a Caregiver as “any individual who willingly gives of themselves to improve the quality of life for another individual.” There are times when the responsibility of providing care weighs heavy upon Caregivers. When this giving of self, especially when it occurs over prolonged periods, leaves the Caregiver drained of energy and in need of care themselves, it is time to take a step back and look at what one’s own needs are.
So what can Caregivers
The Herald Sun recently featured an article on Betty Calman, an 83-year-old instructor still going strong after 40 years of teaching yoga. Author of 3 books on yoga and a pioneer in bringing this practice to Australia in the 1950s, Ms. Calman was drawn back into teaching up to 11 classes per week 8 years ago by her daughter, who runs a health centre and needed more instructors. According to Betty, "You’re never too old. The body is a remarkable instrument. It can
stretch
By Shae Hadden
A friend shared corporate poet David Whyte’s recent article "A Fire Inside: Thoughts on the Creativity of Winter" with me. David uses a brilliant metaphor to explore the trauma of loss prevalent in the global economic crisis. He speaks of a a fire burning inside a home on a winter’s day as being like an "internal, alchemical, almost catalytic core of identity-making and decision-making….the
By Jim Selman | Bio
Do you remember when networks of computers first arrived on the scene? Moving information onto the new technological platform decentralized and dispersed information and knowledge, a move that resulted in a significant communications revolution that still has repercussions today. Giving people the ability to access and share what had previously existed only on paper or in the minds of certain individuals not only sped up the rate of transactions, but also freed individuals from a certain amount of manipulation.Some resisted the move to computers, feeling threatened by what they perceived as a loss of control—they equated giving up the ‘management’ of ‘their’ information and knowledge as a threat to their power. Ironically, organizations eventually embraced computers as a means to ‘manage’ knowledge, creating complex online systems to store and share the experience and expertise of their employees.
We’re now witnessing an
By Jim Selman | Bio
I admit I am not a fan of television in general and the broadcast news media in particular. However, I found myself spending some time in bed this week after some minor surgery and cruising the tube for something to watch. I was amazed at how many channels are now dedicated to around-the-clock news. I landed on CNN and was ‘blitzed’ with a super fancy build-up to "The Presidential Scorecard: The First 100 Days". This is obviously choreographed by the same people who can make war sound like a college football game and almost anything ordinary sound significant–unfortunately so much so that it is hard to distinguish what really is significant.With today’s technology, we can all ‘vote’ on whatever the media is commenting on and have our opinions added to the tally. This is, of course, just the latest in the media’s attempt to engage viewers in a never-ending commentary about whatever is going on. I think this phenomenon is further evidence of our becoming a spectator society.
Surfing channels, I found that all the programs now have panels of folks who give their opinion about whatever item
By Kevin Brown | Bio
It is my experience that caregiving is fast becoming another role that adults will take on in the communities in which we live. In fact, Statistics Canada reports that seniors made up 13.1% of the general population in 2005. The Ottawa-based Institute of Marriage and Family, in their recently released report titled ‘Care-Full’, states that between 2005 and 2056, the average Canadian’s life expectancy will rise by seven years. One could assume that the statistics for the United States will be similar in nature.It seems to me, therefore, that even if you have not assumed the role of a caregiver in the past, it is a role that you will likely assume sometime in your future. As with any new role, a definition is usually helpful. Wikipedia defines ‘caregiver’ as “unpaid relatives or friends who support people with disabilities”. Another online source ‘The Free Dictionary’ gave this definition: “An individual, such as a parent, foster parent, or head of a household,
Many retirees these days are revisiting their retirement and pension plans to see if they’ll have enough funds to weather the global recession. In Canada, 35% of seniors receive the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement benefit, which ensures that individuals receive a minimum annual income (including Old Age Security benefits) of at least $13,683. This level is still below the level set by the government as the deemed poverty level ($15,336 for 2008). CARP is now proposing that the government
By Shae Hadden | Bio
Spring flowers bloom passionately on this sunny West Coast day, birds are preparing nests for their young and people run madly by me as I sit by the ocean and ponder what it takes to survive in these times. My search for a place to live has not yet been entirely successful, and the conversations I’ve had reveal both desperation and gnawing hesitation in myself and others to actually put a stake in the ground—metaphorically speaking—and declare that this is the future we are committing to. It’s almost as if, with so much uncertainty about so many things in our lives, we are afraid to take a chance—whether on an investment, a potential tenant, a business expense or a relationship.What do we lose when we put aside possibility and focus on surviving?
I think that we lose touch with our courage and creativity. When things look difficult, change is tumultuous and our internal sense of balance is thrown off kilter, we often forget there is a silver lining to the economic doom and gloom. We now have an opportunity to return to the heart of things, to simplify our lives, to free ourselves from practices that might have had us living beyond our means.
There
By Jim Selman | Bio
For no particular reason, today I am more conscious than normal of my ‘little voice’—you know the conversation in our heads. I talk about this phenomenon a lot in my work. People laugh when I challenge the conventional view that they can control it: “Try to turn it off” or “Don’t think about what I am about to say”. Then I suggest that this conversation we are always having, what we call thinking, is in fact an endless stream of thoughts that may or may not be