The Gist

A fine balance - navigating solitude and connection

Recently, in my part of the world, we celebrated Valentine’s Day and Family Day on the same long weekend. It is easy to get caught up and overwhelmed with all the commercialization that surrounds Valentine’s Day. The flowers, chocolates, gifts and its primary focus on romantic love. But Family Day offered an opportunity to look more broadly and examine the various types of love, warmth and connection that we all want and need in our lives. See full transcript here. [https://happen.substack.com/publish/post/189142596] Photo credit: Freestock

Cultivate beginner's mind - how to bring curiosity and playfulness into your day

It is easy to become preoccupied with all the things we need to do, whether because of obligation or choice. Our responsibilities can start to feel like burdens. And so often our modern day pursuit of personal productivity blinds us to other more valuable things - like making mistakes, learning from them, and having fun along the way. Children have an incredible ability to do all three.  Perhaps it is because they take themselves less seriously and bring a novice’s perspective.  This way of looking at life is sometimes referred to as “beginner's mind.”  The kind of mind that remains open to learning, seeking out varied information, and finding new possibilities.  See full transcript here. [https://happen.substack.com/publish/post/185553985] Photo Credit: Xavi Cabera

Trusting life - how to start the new year with positivity and patience

It might feel like the first week of this year has already flown by!  But the rest of the year still stretches ahead of us. What will the year bring? Can we hope, plan, and work towards new goals?  Can we take any lessons from the previous year has taught us and move forward? We can choose to start each new year fresh, with curiosity about its possibilities. But uncertainty can also fill us up with a sense of dread. Sometimes our sense of impatience about the future can come from our unhealthy relationship with time or what is called ‘time poverty’ - a fear that time is always in short supply. Will we get everything done in the limited time we have each day or each year? But this fear creates a heightened sense of urgency which often leads to hasty decisions or actions as a way to relieve our restlessness. Often we mistakenly believe that doing something is better than doing nothing. But there are no quick fixes for most meaningful things in life, which usually just take time, effort and patience. See full transcript here. [https://happen.substack.com/publish/post/184060479]Photo credit: Jovica Smileski

Wise effort - and how it helps you find balance

As we go through our lives we might wonder whether we are spending our days as we should be. How much time should go into one thing versus another? How much effort is enough? While there are no easy answers to such broad questions, it helps to start by understanding our priorities and our intentions. Armed with this understanding, we can use a practice what is called “wise effort” – knowing when a lot of effort is warranted and when a lighter touch is more appropriate. See full transcript here. [https://happen.substack.com/] Photo credit: Barbara Horn

Life is messy - how nature helps us embrace imperfection

To everything there is a season, the saying goes.  And here in many parts of North America, we are in the midst of my favourite one - autumn.  To me, it is a season that brings together the best of the other three.  There is a hint of lingering summer heat tempered by cooler breezes.  Some days feel like spring with fresh rains and some green still left in the leaves.  And as the trees start turning into shades of red and auburn, they remind us that autumn is keeping the winter snow at bay a little longer. Fall also signals a time of change.  For garden lovers, it's a time to close off our flower beds, wrap our evergreens in burlap blankets, and plant bulbs for the spring season.  As an amateur gardener with mostly a brown thumb, I always admire the bountiful gardens of my friends and neighbours.  and professionally landscaped botanicals with sprawling year round blooms and weed free beds. But in a world so focused on outward curated perfection - perfect houses and lawns, perfect bodies and clothes, indeed perfect lives whatever that means to each of us - I have come to terms with my messy garden.  In fact it has become a source of solace and joy, a place where I get to putter, to experiment, to try things with imperfect knowledge, and to learn by trial and error.  A forgiving place where flowers and vegetables sometimes bloom in spite of my ignorance.  A reminder that life is inherently messy and surprising despite our best attempts to control it. See full transcript here. [https://happen.substack.com/] Photo credit: Merlin's Hollow