Hi dear friend…..

I wanted to to take a few moments and wish you and your loved ones my love and prayers.

2020 was indeed a challenging year for us all. However, you are still standing! All the challenges that you faced simply prepared you for living your purpose ahead.

I wanted to personally thank you for all your support during this past year.

Whether you have been following my work for many years or are just finding about it now, I am deeply grateful for your being a part of it growing around the world, as well as sharing it with your friends and family.

Let’s be honest: the season we’re living through right now in this pandemic is scary and stressful for all of us. The more I keep watching, the more I keep seeing so many of us hitting places where we’re experiencing strong, sometimes confusing emotions—about our money, our jobs, or our lives in general.

Everything is a bit up in the air still, leading us to face a lot of stress and fear. Believe it or not, that’s why I think it’s so important to keep talking about building our wealth from the inside out, and not the outside in, so we can insulate ourselves against the chaos of what happens in the world and leave our fear and stress far behind us.

This is what I mean…

How to Build Your Life From the Inside Out

Across America, people are wondering what the holidays will be like as pandemic-related restrictions on traveling and gathering drag on. Mental health experts worry about how adults and children will cope when normal ways of celebrating are curtailed.

About two-thirds of American parents are worried about the pandemic impacting the mental health of their children, according to a recent survey from Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

The holidays are already a time when many people struggle to feel happy and joyful amid the festivities going on around them. This year many families and individuals are coping with feelings of grief after losing a loved one to the pandemic or other causes.

It’s always hard to face the first holiday without a beloved family member or friend. It will be even more challenging this year as many people choose to stay home and gather only with those in their households, especially for those who live alone.

Even during the best of times, the holidays can be stressful and disruptive to your body, your emotions, and your routines. So how can we manage feelings of stress, isolation, and loneliness this year during holidays marred by a global crisis?

This year, it’s more important than ever to take steps to guard your emotional, mental, and physical health. Here are a few ideas to help make your holidays joyful in spite of the pandemic:

As our last weeks in Florida go by, I find myself looking with fresh eyes at the natural world right outside our door, just like I did when we first arrived here. When you know you are moving (and who knows when you will return), everything takes on a special light, a different vibration. Habit falls away and you see every detail with delight and appreciation. A group of ten white ibises with long curved orange beaks walks slowly past our lanai. A palm warbler on the window ledge looks around curiously, bobbing its tail. A giant swallowtail butterfly, the largest in the U.S., serenely floats by and lands on a bush next to the trail where I am walking. A zebra longwing butterfly flutters in the air nearby. So many amazing creatures so close and clearly visible. None of them native to Massachusetts. These are once-in-a-lifetime moments, I say to myself; savor them.

I've Been Thinking...

The other day, I was listening to the news and was struck that I kept hearing the phrase “on day one" over and over.

“On day one,” the pundits said, “the Biden/Harris team will be ready to go.” “They are picking people who will be ready on day one.” “On day one, these people will know exactly what to do.”

That, of course, got me thinking. Hmm, is that really true? Do I really want someone to make big decisions on day one? Do I want someone to walk in the door and tell me, “Listen, here’s how it’s going to go. Here’s what’s going to change. This is what you need to know and do.” Or do I want someone to walk in on day one, sit down, gather people around, and start the hard work of listening and rebuilding trust?

I've Been Thinking...

How are you doing?

Let’s pause together this morning. Let's put our hands over our hearts, close our eyes, and breathe. Was the holiday a lot? Was it not enough? Did people come? Are they leaving now? Did you travel? Was it stressful? Did you Zoom? Was it weird? Was it surprisingly okay? Was it all of the above and more?

Whatever it was, it’s behind you. You are here. We are here together. Let’s hold space for one another. The so-called holiday season is upon us and we are going to need each other. We are going to need each other to be kind. We are going to need each other to be understanding because things are going to be different.

I know you might be saying to yourself, “Here we go with different again. I don’t want any more different. I miss things the way they were.” I get it. I feel you. I understand. But as I wrote last week, we have to focus on the way things are now and the way they will be. You have to take care of yourself and prepare yourself.

(This has become my annual Thanksgiving message, so you may have read this before, but please read it now, because I want you to celebrate yourself!)

Some of you may be celebrating this Thanksgiving with hugs, easy conversation, turkey, and pumpkin pie. Yet some of you may feel stranded, like the marble that rolled away from the group, stuck with the dust bunnies in outer space or abandoned under the buffet. And some of you may feel stranded in broad daylight, surrounded by people, feeling invisible, or worse yet, as visible and mangled as a car wreck.

For many, the holidays can bring up discomfort.

Beauty
Doesn’t need
An explanation

It is unnecessary
To describe
What is plainly seen

Beauty requires
No proof
Or evaluation

Judging what is genuine
As good or bad
Right or wrong
More or less
Is wasted attention

One’s attention
Could be on
The Beauty
Instead

Beauty does not need
To be interpreted to be validated

Beauty
Doesn’t explain
It just is what it is

Everything in creation is beautiful.

I know, I know… you’ve heard everyone from Oprah to Gwyneth sing the praises of practicing gratitude and the importance of creating a gratitude journal. 

But do these kinds of trendy approaches really work? You bet your sweet mystical pirate booty they do!

You know I love my “woo,” but I also want to ground everything in the practical. If it ain’t working, I ain’t wasting my time on it… which is why I can say with complete confidence that gratitude journaling is one of the most beneficial habits you can develop if you want more blessings, more magic, and more miracles in your life. 

I've Been Thinking...

I awoke at dawn on Friday. The early morning, like my home, was dark and quiet.

I looked out my kitchen window as I brewed my coffee. I always look at the same tree in my backyard whenever I’m feeling off balance or out of sorts. It has been an inspiration for me as long as I’ve lived in my home.

When there were wildfires in California earlier this fall, I looked out at my tree in what felt like slow motion. Several of its beautiful branches came crashing to the ground. I was told it was just too hot outside and that the branches buckled under the weight of the heat. I held my breath as I watched them fall. I thought the entire tree might fall before my very eyes. I was already mentally preparing for what I would do without it.

I tell this story because, in some way, I think many of us are holding our breath right now waiting for something to fall. We are preparing for things to keep changing, or to live without something we love.

As we are less than a week away from celebrating Thanksgiving Day in the US …. I am reminded to find  the moments of appreciation all around us, big and little. Join me in reaching for the feeling of gratitude my friend. We can do this!

We’re shining our lights. We’re being lighthouses for the highest, greatest, good. That’s been my prayer the entire time we have walked this journey we are all in collectively. It is still my prayer today … nothing has changed: the highest, greatest, good for all.

Can we get there together? That is the goal. That’s what so many people want, regardless of where you stand in the midst of all the current changes. We don’t go back. We move forward … and you have to choose and decide where you’re going to put your attention and your energy.

And if you are truly going to be a peacemaker, if you are truly focused on peace in this world, then you have to have it inside of you.

You cannot have regret. You cannot have anger. You cannot have judgment. You cannot have condemnation. You cannot have ignorance towards others. You cannot have comparison.

That doesn’t live with peace.

What do you think about when you first wake up?

The Practice:
Lean into good on first waking.

Why?

Waking up is like the sun rising. At first it’s mostly dark, as glimmers of consciousness begin to light the shadows. Emerging into full wakefulness, the fogs and veils dissolve and the whole plain of your mind comes into view. It’s quiet: a restedness in the body, sleepy still, not yet much internal verbal chatter. There’s an intimacy with yourself, abiding as the core of your be-ing.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is told she could have gone home at any moment. She manages to click her heels-- instead of punch a fist into a wall-- or a witch. I want to help you click your heels, find home base, and maybe even rock the world of those around you—especially during the holiday season. 

Let’s stop looking for love in the future—or hunting the wizard. Let’s find the love that’s right in front of our faces, because it is here, right now. A Course in Miracles teaches, that if we’re not seeing the love, we’re not seeing. Well, that makes me a big fat bat-- but lately, I’m turning into an eagle.

I’ve been what I call “mind blind.” So sure I knew things, and that things would always stay the same, --that I couldn’t see precious opportunities in front of me. 

The other morning, I woke up sad and peeved with myself. I was thinking about these photos, tons of them, black and white, faded and yellowed, with Polaroid serrated edges, stuffed in a desk drawer in the utility room of the house I grew up in. Bits and pieces of my father’s early life. Even letters he wrote on composition notebook paper as a soldier. My father, one of the great mysteries of my life. And I had never asked about them. And now they’re gone. He’s gone. And everything had been right there.

I look back now and think: how could I have lived for more than two decades in that house and never looked at those pictures? They had always been there.

I've Been Thinking...

Well, well, well. Here we are at the dawn of a new era. A new beginning.

I am looking forward with eyes wide open. Heart wide open. And I’m not just saying this because I’m embarking on a new year of life, which I am after my birthday on Friday. Now, so too is our country. We are embarking on a new path forward. I feel honored and blessed to be embracing this historic moment. I embrace it knowing full well that not everyone feels the way I feel, thinks the way I think, or sees what I see. I accept that. I accept that there may be people reading this who do not even accept that we are entering a new era. It is what it is.

I read a news story the other day that really tugged at my mind and my heart.

When I first saw it, I was sitting in my office. It popped up in my news feed and I quickly scanned it then immediately got distracted by my work and moved on.

That night, while I was sitting alone on my couch, the same story popped up on my television. This time I let it sink in. The story was about seniors across the country dying from isolation and loneliness. As one death certificate stated, they are dying from a “failure to thrive.” What in the name of God is happening to our country and to us? I thought. I turned off the TV and just sat there staring at the wall, alone with my thoughts.

After two and a half years in Florida, my partner Anne and I are moving back to Massachusetts. It is a decision of the heart. We are choosing to be closer to family and old friends and to remembered places that fill us with great love and appreciation. We are returning home. A few weeks ago, as I was on hold while buying our airline tickets to Boston, Simon and Garfunkel’s song “Homeward Bound” began playing in my ear. The synchronicity was unmistakable. I burst into tears.

There’s so much going on right now that is impossible for us to comprehend.

Movements are taking place around us – but on planes we can’t readily access (and we’re not talking airplanes although I sure wish I could hop on one to see my friends.) Transitions, opportunities, alignments… but it’s outside our reach. Yet we long so desperately to understand! 

How can we surrender to the mystery?

Here’s the deal: We can’t truly “get” what’s happening around us because the web of creation is so vast, so much more complex, so much more intricate than we could ever begin to grasp!

That’s hard for us, in our human state, to accept. (It kinda reminds me of when I was a little kid sitting at the adults’ table and the conversation went right over my head). We want to take part, to listen and to be heard… but we can’t exactly follow the train of thought! So we’re left grabbing little bits and pieces and getting frustrated because it doesn’t all fit together in a nice pretty package we can put in our pocket.