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Seasonal Changes

Sometimes it’s hard to articulate the changes that are happening inside you and around you… they are flowing so subtly and incessantly, and emerge cumulatively and progressively.

Today, I feel like everything is all swirling around in spirals. My perception…

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Everything in it’s own time

There are certain things that have a particular timing, pace or rhythm that is not negotiable… things like sunsets, tides, seasons, and in today’s case, clarity and healing.

I’ve taken some time off from teaching due to an RA flare…

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Celebrate Solstice

This is typically a time of joy and celebration, but not necessarily for everyone. Is it me, or does this year in particular seem weighted with sorrow near and far? Walking in the woods is the main thing keeping me…

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Happy New Year!

As a citizen of the planet, I celebrate all holidays. Hence, we are taking an integration week break for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the start of the High Holy-days (holi-days!)

My DNA test says I have Ashkinazi…

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You Never Know

Since I last wrote I have been sick.

I left my house for a weekend visit with friends, and I ended up unable to make the 6 hour drive back home. I was convalescing for 2 weeks. Meanwhile, it stormed…

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Think Big

If you want to reimagine the world you need to reimagine how you are in the world.

That's what these classes are about. Thinking big and wide and deep, and then acting super-locally through self-awareness, exploration, and our connection to…

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Learning from the Inside Out

I started reading a book called Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, which is fundamentally affecting how I think about things... in a fascinating and positive way. It is making me question how our culture educates and teaches us…

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Who Are You?

We all have stories about everything. It's part of being human. We especially have stories about ourselves, and they make up our self-image. 

Sometimes we repeat things we were told about ourselves as children, or something we discovered about ourselves…

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4 Magic Questions

As you may have heard, I recently presented a workshop at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture with a colleague/ friend named Joy Kuebler. Over 20 years of designing public spaces, she developed a fun, unique and effective process of…

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Managing Obstacles

I got a new woodstove!

Today’s challenge was getting the 200 lbs. box made of soapstone & cast iron from the back of the Subaru and into the house with the help of my 103 lbs. feldi sister, Linda, and…

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Transformation

We all are on a journey, and the journey takes us places we never imagined... And when we think we want to step into the world to serve, and serve in a role of leading, we may find that the

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Acting from Abundance

So I recently returned from the annual Landscape Architecture Conference, and I now know that Halloween weekend in Minneapolis is a Thing! I also learned a bit about how your internal attitude changes your world.

The conference is driven by…

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With Loss Comes Freedom

It's not what I asked for, but I'm finding myself learning to navigate all this space that has opened up in my new life without a pup to hospice. One thing that's oh so tempting is to just mindlessly fill…

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Mindful Bodies

This summer I had the pleasure (and the challenge!) of teaching mindfulness to 30 humans, aged 5-14, for our local 4-H day camp!

The biggest surprise was how effective the sound of a mindfulness bell was to immediately quiet the…

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Active Surrender

Living in a body with RA has taught me a lot about the limits of force and the usefulness of surrender. 

I used to think surrender meant losing, failure, quitting, a total collapse of will and effort… something to be…

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Process - Driven Living

So what do you do when things don't go according to plan?

 

I couldn't get the help I was counting on for installing 300 sq. ft. of Saltillo tile on my new floor, and my experience installing this uniquely Mexican…

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A Culture of Listening

Contrary to what most folks think, listening is not a passive intellectual exercise. It's an active, embodied skill, that get stronger with practice. 

Our culture values talking over listening. We attend to those who speak up, we praise those who…

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Holding Paradox

The last few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster, as I am in the process of building my little 24' x 30' dream house! 

From one moment to the next I oscillate from completely thrilled and delighted, to panic and…

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Change Your Mind & Change the World

The world is changing around us at an alarmingly fast rate. 20 years ago, I was drawn to landscape architecture because I believed through this discipline, I could help protect nature and connect people to the environment and each other. 

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Somatic Interventions for Productivity: Movement

The mind and body are an integrated mobius strip which influence one another. How we move changes how we think, and recent neuroscience explains this interconnection in ever increasing clarity. As designers, we can integrate this information into our professional…

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