I’ve always been curious and fascinated by the period of time that all humans spend in the womb.  There is really nothing else like it in our human experience. In the womb, someone or something is managing our entire existence for us, protecting us and loving us, making sure we have an environment is which we can safely grow.  After we are born, while our needs are not met as perfectly, if we are lucky, we’ll have caring adults who then manage our lives.  This allows us to be happy, carefree children able to explore and learn in our new environment. ...

As human beings we have a way of seeing the world that is quite unique in its flexibility.  We can see ourselves as separate from everything we perceive or we can see ourselves as part of and connected to everything around us.  The existential philosopher, Martin Buber, called these two relationships,  “I-It” and “I-Thou.”  In the “I-It” relationship,  we experience  ourselves as separate from our perceptions.  Everything we see is an it. Rocks and plants and other people are perceived as things that we aren’t.  We relate to...

This was the tag line of a wonderful song from the early days of rock and roll by a performer who called himself, The Big Bopper.  It was called Chantilly Lace.  In the song, the Big Bopper (Jay Perry Richardson) describes in this baritone voice how his young girlfriend walks and talks and dresses and how much her girlish mannerisms please him and make him act silly.  The lyrics are really wild.  He says, “Ain’t nothin’ in the world like a big-eyed girl to make me act so funny, make me spend my money, make me feel real loose, like a long-neck...

There is an expression in the workplace (also found on tee-shirts) that says, the beatings will continue until morale improves. It refers to the absurdity of management expecting people to feel better about their job and about themselves (morale) by constantly criticizing and shaming them (beatings).  As crazy as this notion is, I find that it reflects an unconscious mechanism operating for many of us in our internal conversations.  The validity of this mechanism often goes unchallenged and unchecked.  How often have you done something that you consider...