What the heck is ASMR?

The acronym ASMR stands for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response." The best description I've ever seen of it is this video here.  The gist is that certain triggers cause good, relaxing feelings of "tingles" and "shivers" that run down a person's spine. ASMR is generally a pleasant, soothing sensation, and it helps people get to sleep …

The Physics of Power

Those in power will do anything they must in order to stay in power. From the cheap seats, it looks like the white male capitalist hegemony is losing power, and is resorting to the toolbox of doing anything to keep it.

Reassessing Habits to Keep, Drop or Add

Today's Quest 2017 prompt from Charlie Gilkey is in video form! I've been slowly gathering the outcomes of the various Quest prompts into my plan for the coming year. I haven't really set out anything specific yet, just doing the ground work. This prompt is a really nice format for that work. I did write …

Bringers of Hope Gaze Into the Darkness

I realized that if I were to be the sunrise, I would never see the light of day. I would always gaze into the darkness and keep hurtling toward it. I could bring light to everyone in my wake. But as for me, I'd be forever facing into the night.

The Language of My Intuition

We are in the homestretch with the Quest 2017, and I'm feeling the ideas coalescing. I've been remiss in terms of linking to the amazing thoughts, ideas and responses the other Questers have been posting.  From Kate Arms facing her resistance to get to deep answers to Dorianne Cotter-Lockard making me feel better about being …

It’s Called Traditional Publishing

Yesterday's Quest 2017 prompt has had me stumped. Here's what Desiree Adaway asked: How have you allowed a system, institution, or tradition to hold you back? What will you do to make sure this does not happen in 2017? It's a good question. It's a good question because it is so harrowing to answer. Looking …

What Will Be Asked Of The Poets

I've been asking the question for weeks now: What will be asked of the poets, healers, and storytellers in these times we live in? My teacher and friend Jeffrey Davis just asked that question - quoting Holderlin. “What are poets for in destitute times?” My throat is tight with pain for Aleppo. What is asked of us? …

Attention Matters: An Addendum and a Twist

In 2011, I wrote a blog post about Attention that has been shared and discussed many times in the last 5 years. It even got reposted on Rebelle Society a year or two ago. I still believe it. All of the things I said in the original post still resonate as true to me. Attention …

It’s Okay to Feel Complicated

If you were selecting a candidate in this election, it's likely you took a quiz with sliders along an "agree/disagree" continuum. And it's likely you answered at least a dozen questions, if not many more. Then, at the end, you likely got a "I agree with so-and-so X%." It was never 100%. And many of your sliders were in the middle. Right? Then why do we suddenly expect that people who voted one way or the other had shoved all of their sliders to "Agree totally" and agreed 100% with the candidate they chose?

Cultural Shadow Work

In my post this morning, I referred to the election as "cultural shadow work". I realize that not everyone sits around reading Jung for fun, so let me explain what I meant. For Carl Jung, the definition of the "shadow" in the psyche was all of the stuff that we have said "that's not me" …