When do we forget to stop and smell?

No meat, no ripping up the house, just a stuffed bear...

LACONIA, N.H. – A black bear walked into a New Hampshire house through an open door, ate two pears and a bunch of grapes, took a drink from the family fishbowl and grabbed a stuffed bear on its way out the door.

Mary Beth Parkinson says the bear apparently took advantage of the open outside door to get into her kitchen Tuesday in Laconia, about 20 miles north of Concord. She thinks the garage door going up scared the bear enough that it fled the house.

She says she arrived in time to save the fish.

Parkinson said her 6- and 9-year-old boys made sure the doors were locked before they went to bed

The Gift of Quiet

For the past week or so I have been jogging in a new gym. The first few days were almost painful. I told myself it was the altitude (its over 6400 feet high here) that I had gotten out of shape, anything I could to soften the dread of going back. And then, today, something happened. The man who worked out next to me, stayed home. And guess what? I could have run for hours! So what happened? Was it his scent, his conversation…his energy?

The older I become, more and more I recognize how different people’s energies affect mine. Some literally drain me. Others fill me up. When I am out of touch with myself, rushed or stressed, I don’t notice the specifics of how energies affect me. I don’t seem to have time to hear what is going on around me. But when I slow down enough to hear and honor what I feel, everything begins to make sense, I know what I need to do to feel better. Luckily, I had help this time.

Mark is a super nice guy. He never hit on me, made me feel uncomfortable, or even talked too much. He even made sure to give me enough space to exercise in peace. But, honestly, his energy just didn’t jive with mine. It sucked me dry.

Energies aren’t ‘wo-woo’ anymore. They are real and their effects deserve to be honored. But to honor them, we must feel them, and to feel them we have to give ourselves the gift of quiet. Time alone to check in with ourselves and how we genuinely feel isn’t just good for our spirits, its necessary for our health and wellbeing. When was the last time you gave yourself that gift?

Moments touched by Grace

When such a moment occurs, when the mind is touched by something larger than its ability to understand, when the heart is moved by something deeper than its capacity to dive, when the impulse to speak is stirred by the presence of something that cannot be named, things happen that defy the boundaries of time. In such moments we are made aware of a unity that is always present but seldom clearly known, and the flood of that presence, even when its conscious wave has passed, changes the life of the being who encounters it.

--Mark Nepo

Are you feeding the half that begets magic?

One blustery winter eve beside a fire crackling in the hearth, an old scientist with messy white hair and glasses that hung off the tip of his nose decided to tell his grandson about the nature of the human brain.

He cleared his throat then said, ‘Son, there is a battle between two wolves inside each of us. One wolf is anger, jealousy, sorrow, greed, arrogance, inferiority, superiority, and ego. And he,’ he said touching the left side of his brain, ‘lives here.’

The other wolf is love, compassion, empathy, peace, connection, joy, infinite energy, and reverence for all things. Some have been known to call this wolf our heart but,’ he said touching the right side of his brain, ‘a large part of our heart lives here.’

The bright eyed grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf is stronger? Which side wins?’ The elderly scientist leaned down as if to share a secret, then whispered in his raspy old voice: ‘The one you feed.’

(Modern version of an old Cherokee parable)

Free Hugs in Sondrio, Italy

How would the world feel if we all hugged one another more? Smaller? Kinder? More meaningful? Gentler? Even magic? Try it on, see how it might feel to you...