Uncategorized

Nobody could have foreseen the young Mohandas Gandhi becoming a world leader. Small and unassuming, with a big nose and jug ears, the Hindu boy was so shy he couldn’t speak up for himself.…

Photo of red-tailed hawk by Erin Western

This year, the San Diego region has been experiencing heat waves and drought conditions that have severely impacted local wildlife. All over California, birds and mammals are suffering from dehydration and heat stress – especially this week, as temperatures soared into the triple digits and wildfires raged. …

Most of us will remember Don Henley’s 1982 smash hit “Dirty Laundry.” The catchy tune was a scathing send-up of tabloid journalism, which was then on the rise. To air one’s dirty laundry means to discuss or argue about unpleasant or private things in front of others.…

Recently I’ve been playing with an exciting new approach to manifestation, as outlined in the book Scripting the Life You Want, by Royce Christyn. It involves a daily practice of writing down your intentions for the day ahead, including things you hope will happen along with others that you absolutely know will happen.…

Have you been watching Simone Biles at the Paris Olympics? If so, you know greatness when you see it. “She’s not even human,” I’ve heard several people say of the world’s most decorated gymnast – who’s been wowing star-studded crowds.…

By the early 1950s, Frank Sinatra’s career had hit a low ebb. No one wanted him as a singer or an actor. Yet when he read the book From Here to Eternity, which was about to be made into a movie, Sinatra knew he was born to play the part of Maggio.…

One Saturday when I was 14, my friend Erin and I were hanging out at my home when the minister of our church stopped by to lay his hands on my mom’s sprained ankle.…

Our beautiful green planet just marked a shocking new milestone – enduring 12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat. Every single month from June 2023 to May 2024 was the world’s hottest such month on record.…

What if, all through your childhood, your dad told you things like, “You’re gonna shake up this world,” and, “You’re gonna win Wimbledon.” And drove you past mansions in the wealthy part of town, assuring you that some day you’d have one of your own.…

It’s hard to imagine, especially for those of us (like me) who spent our summer vacations haunting the local library and devouring adventure novels, but many U.S. kids have no library near where they live – and thus no access to books.…

Waxing Moon Goddess by Ramona Szczerba

I went salsa dancing last Saturday night for the first time in years. Salsa used to be my world, and I was out dancing at least five times a week.…

A butterfly is a delicate, ephemeral creature. So, the Zuni Butterfly Dance, which took place off a dusty, remote New Mexico road, came as a shock to many. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes describes it in Women Who Run with the Wolves, the dancer, Maria Lujan, was a large, elderly native woman with long, gray hair wearing a one-shouldered, red-and-black blanket dress and sporting butterfly wings.…

Some years ago, motivational teacher Debra Poneman was preparing a big speech for Jack Canfield’s Transformational Leadership Council. But fate had a twist up its sleeve. As Poneman recalls, “I had my presentation all planned, replete with my flip chart and white board and power point, and I was ready to romp around the stage and give the presentation of a lifetime.…

“Anything done for another is done for oneself.” –Pope John Paul II

Human beings can be profoundly contradictory. Take Pope John Paul II, who helped usher the Catholic Church into the 21st century.…

At age 35, Jennifer Flewellen was put into a medically induced coma after crashing her car into a pole. Doctors soon became certain she would never recover and encouraged Flewellen’s mother, Peggy Means, to take her off life-support.…