Left Brain Buddha
the modern mindful blog
Living in Relationship with Mystery … and the Religious
Today I am honored to be featured on the Our Land Series! Do you know Kristi of Finding Ninee? You should! She is funny and deep and insightful, usually all in the same post! Her blog is about, among many other things, raising her son who has developmental delays. She...
The Best Things in Life…
... are free, right? And they are not, as the saying goes, things at all. The best parts of life are "things" like family and friendship, and living with intention and purpose. What could be better than that? Well, right now there is a beautiful convergence, a holy...
Practice Gratitude: Happy Thanksgiving!
Be Grateful "Gratitude moves us away from let's-make-a-deal exchanges in relationships toward a sense of abundance, in which you feel fed beyond measure and in turn give with all your heart without keeping score. Then recognize the benefits to you of what has been...
Parenting as Pilgrimage
Next week, many of us will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. We’ll decorate our tables with orange and red and brown candles, with leaves and turkeys and cornucopias, and perhaps men and women in grim black costumes. For Thanksgiving is a celebration of gratitude, the...
Let’s Talk About This
When I taught Women’s Studies, my students and I analyzed advertising and media images of women. I was inspired by Jean Kilbourne’s series Killing Us Softly, which documents the portrayal of women in advertising from the 1970s to today. She describes seeing the ads...
In Praise of Simple Days
Appreciating Simple Joys "We have to teach ourselves and our children how to appreciate the simple joys that are available. This may not be easy in our complex, distracted society, but it is essential for our survival. Sitting on the grass with your little boy or...
The Act of Relationship
Relationship. We have relationships with our spouses, our children, our parents, our colleagues, and our neighbors. We even talk about our relationships with food, God, iPhones, cars, and money. Because I’m an analytical, left-brain gal, I like to ponder the words we...
Why I Love Reading Parenting Books
When I was a little kid, I thought my parents knew everything. And not just because they’re uber-smart. They just seemed to know everything about raising kids. My dad just knew the perfect stories to tell me before bed, like the stories he made up about a little girl,...
War and Peace and Friendship
Ambitious title, no? While I would love to offer you a comprehensive analysis on how to end war and establish peace and proclaim friendship for all, I feel that is a bit beyond the scope of one blog post! In the spirit of "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a...
Don’t Judge a Mother By Her Meltdown
Review of The Mother of All Meltdowns We’ve all had one. A meltdown. It’s such a perfect term to describe not only a nuclear disaster, but what can happen to human beings when our core does not remain stable. If our cooling-off mechanisms break down, dangerous...
Our Bedtime Ritual: A Help, a Thanks, or a Wow
How I’m transforming a bedtime routine into a bedtime ritual with my daughter.
Soccer Mom, Aggressive Daughter. Dance Mom, Effeminate Son?
It's the last Monday of the month, so it's time for the Brilliant Book Club! We're continuing our discussion of Hilary Levey Friedman's Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture. You can read the posts from my fellow Book Club Bloggers here: Deb of...
Trick or Treat: My Motherhood Journey in Nine Halloweens
A week from today it will be Halloween. My 8th Halloween with children. Reflecting on the last eight Octobers, beginning with the October of 2006 in which my daughter was born, I am caught in that strange place between wondering how it's all gone so fast, and yet...
The A to Z Book Survey!
It's no secret that I LOVE books and reading. I loved reading the responses to the A to Z Book Survey shared by Lindsey of A Design So Vast, and Jessica of School of Smock {the survey was originally created by The Perpetual Page-Turner}. Today I'm sharing my responses...
Bravery, Joy, and Gratitude
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live Maybe one of these days you can let the light in Show me how big your brave is Say what you wanna say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave With what you want to say And let the words fall out...
Diamonds and Water: An Economic Analysis of Motherhood
The best part of my day is… … when I manage to find a few moments to myself, in a quiet and empty house. I sit in my favorite chair and read a good book, with a cup of coffee flavored with a yummy creamer. It is calming, rejuvenating, nourishing, and… Wait!! I mean,...
Embrace Your Life with a Grateful Heart
In my "This I Believe" statement, I have written, "Motherhood is amazing, profound, terrifying, beautiful, exhausting, life-changing, overwhelming, wonderful, breathtaking, and all-at-once the most daring, the most challenging, and most awesome thing I have ever...
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day
Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. If you've experienced this kind of loss, you know what it's like for a dream to be shattered. You may know what it is like to feel completely alone with your grief. If you know someone who has gone through a loss, you...