Politics

Mental Health: Turn Off TV News, Instead Read it

Relentless negativity sends me into fetal-position sadness and defeat. How about you? Our “new normal” is abnormal. For positive mental health, turn off TV news. Instead, read the news. It gives you more control of what you’re taking in, according to Dr. Daniela Gitlin, author of Practice, Practice, Practice: This Psychiatrist’s Life.   In her […]

Passover and Easter symbolize release from the bondage of despair

Once upon a time, in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, faith was about love, compassion, protection, and building each other up. Those things create a quiet, personal righteousness.  But now a loud, public righteousness is fueled by anger with no room for forgiveness or redemption. Passover and Easter symbolize the power to […]

Insurrection, Grief and Shadowloss

Feel what you feel for as long as it takes to process through it. The right word recognizes our deepest emotions. When I mourn, but my grief is not attached to a physical death, there is a word for it, “shadowloss.” The term was coined by Cole Imperi, founder of The School of American Thanatology, […]

Coup on the Capitol: Blame Alternative Facts

The coup on the Capitol fell on January 6, the Epiphany, which was the visit to the baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men. It marked recognition of a new era. Epiphany also means a sudden and striking realization. We would be wise to know the domestic terrorism on January 6 proved one thing: “divided […]

Pumpkin picking message: “I got this”

When my inner world gets crowded with hobgoblins (and they’re coming in from all sides these days), I know that, just like the season, this, too, will pass.  Meanwhile, be a positive force for others. Create present good. Go pumpkin picking.  We need a mental health break. At a U-pick farm, we march into orange […]