Fallen, but not shattered… My heart can break, And my spirit can still be whole. Exhausted, but not destroyed… My energy can run out, And my spirit can still be strong. Worried, but not hopeless… My mind can see no exit, And my spirit can still find the way. So, I tell you – TheContinue reading “Light and Darkness”
Category Archives: Collective Healing
Your Pain Matters, Too
I often hear people diminish their own suffering with phrases like: It’s just first world problems. I have it so much easier than other people. It’s no big deal. I really have no right to complain. Sometimes we say these things because we’re trying to remind ourselves to be grateful for what we do have.Continue reading “Your Pain Matters, Too”
The Shutdown We Truly Cannot Afford
Why can’t we afford another shutdown? The economy, the elections…So we force sick employees back into the workplace and traumatized students back into the schoolhouse…What about the workers whose personal lives fall apart under the stress? What about the drop in the labor force when so many are forced into early retirement? What about theContinue reading “The Shutdown We Truly Cannot Afford”
People Who Panic Are Brave. You Should Be, Too.
About a decade ago, while surfing the Internet, I stumbled on a page written by someone who suffers from panic disorder. She was offering a course on how to overcome anxiety. I read her descriptions of not being able to leave her apartment with a complete lack of understanding. What was so hard about goingContinue reading “People Who Panic Are Brave. You Should Be, Too.”
Feel Like Your Work and Personal Life Are in Tension? There’s Just One Answer.
Here’s a variation on a familiar saying: Life is what happens while you’re trying to get your work done. For many of us, balancing the demands of work and relationships feels impossible. These can be relationships with parents, partners, children, friends, and also ourselves. What we need to do to make a living feels atContinue reading “Feel Like Your Work and Personal Life Are in Tension? There’s Just One Answer.”
Seeing My White Privilege
I don’t like the word, “privilege.” It connotes the idea of something better, something earned; and whiteness is neither. But the phrase #whiteprivilege has proved useful in explaining the differences in daily experience between people who are white and people of color. This is an essay I wrote several years ago under the title, “WhyContinue reading “Seeing My White Privilege”
Beginning to Breathe
As our world grinds to a halt – Flights canceled, production stopped, commutes erased – Our planet, for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, Reverses the flow and begins to breathe. She is healing, shedding, transforming. And this virus, ironically, attacks the human lungs. We gasp for air. What do we do now? AreContinue reading “Beginning to Breathe”
Kol Nidre
My Grandpa Abe almost never set foot in a synagogue, but the one time of the year when he took pride in climbing the steps of the bimah was on Yom Kippur Eve. It was then that he played the mournful melody of the Kol Nidre on his bass for our whole congregation to hear.Continue reading “Kol Nidre”
Nelson
“You’re one of us,” Nelson said. I looked at my friend, equally surprised by the compliment and bewildered by the spin of his words. I had accepted the epithet, “gringa,” long ago; I knew I wasn’t really one of the Afro-descendent or indigenous Chachi people, the two ancestral groups living in that region of theContinue reading “Nelson”
Looking Forward, and Looking Back
This picture is from 2004, the year our middle child was born. I am looking forward, and I am looking back. That is the essence of this blog, the Emerald Shaman. What essential pieces of our humanity have we lost moving forward, and how do we recover them? How do we reconstruct them in newContinue reading “Looking Forward, and Looking Back”
Alyssa Luboff, Ph.D. 