a blog by John P. Schuster
This recording is one take, mine, on what we can all do to hold the center on all the issues that matter to our country. Conversations between people across the political spectrum are indeed happening in healthy ways. (go near the end if you want a moment of a beautiful American song on our gift of brotherhood) Bombarded with bad news and supposed truths about how totally terrible almost all on the other side are,[…]
Read moreWe are gearing up it appears, if legislative forecasting for 2017 can be believed, for a big spend on the long-neglected infrastructure of highways and sewers and bridges. It took us decades to get to this mandate and let’s hope we intelligently add to our public assets. Democracy itself has a less visible infrastructure, but one just as badly in need of repair. Like physical systems, we use the democratic infrastructure all the time: they[…]
Read moreThe Holiday breather is upon us. Not a breather entirely of course, as we will run around a lot trying to make it all happen again. Still, this time of year we often notice the difference in the air and in ourselves. We slow down and look back at our year, and we give thanks and wonder and assess how we really did through it all. One author I like, Kathy Dowling Singh, writes about[…]
Read moreI have trained several hundred people in the past few years in the work of retirement planning. Many have been very ready to move ahead and enjoy or endure their last months of work. They were ready to plunge into this less-career-identified space we still most often call retirement. Others were somewhat ready and knew they had work to do unless they wanted to be totally surprised by leaving their career. And still others were[…]
Read moreAs I look back at my journey, I see that at times the choice to keep it simple worked out for the best, and at other times simple was a regression. When I stuck with simple love and kindness it generally served me. When my head would run out of avenues to pursue, when I was on the edge of my understanding, which was often and still happens, I eventually learned to breathe deep, feel[…]
Read moreIn modern times, by definition, we emphasize progress and the future. The mindfulness movement is of course about the one eternal now. What, then, can the indigenous peoples of the world teach us with their emphasis on “the ancestors?” A whole lot and way more than we know. Here is my attempt to learn from my Irish ancestors as I head for Ireland and Iona this month on a soul retrieval trip, the one I[…]
Read moreForrest Gump was a lot of peoples’ hero. His life exemplified a kind of flow as he did not sweat the small stuff and kept his “destiny” in mind, the one his momma told him to stay after. He wondered if that feather that kept showing up in his life (you may remember the visual) was him, floating around purposelessly, or did he have a destiny underneath his disjointed life episodes. Eventually, he reconciled the[…]
Read moreMany types of coaching, mentoring, and counseling would benefit greatly from the lessons of Paul McCartney and Jack Panksepp, the neuro-affective scientist whose ground-breaking work has broad application. Take a quick look. Image above Some rights reserved by alles-schlumpf
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