When you need a lesson, the teacher arrives and all that New Age jazz. As Castaneda wrote, “My benefactor used to say that one who stumbles on a petty tyrant is a lucky one.” OK, so I’m super lucky, and if you have one of these horrors in your life then “Yippeee!!” You are too.

A smart mouth and physical self defense only protect you to a point. It seems there is always a man at some point in your life who will claim or feel entitled to power over you by virtue of nothing more than your female-ness. And then he will exercise that power.

It turns out that having a frank conversation about racism with my kids was almost as awkward as having a frank conversation with them about sex. It was somehow embarrassing in the same way I blushed a little the first time I said the word “vagina” out loud to them.

Everything is always becoming something else. Even our cells, relentlessly dividing every second our lives means that technically, we are literally not even the same person we were even minutes ago. Change – death, of a kind, as what was passes - is continuous and unavoidable. The seed is not the tree and all that.

Love and money are the two fundamental forces of life; they’re the dual engines that make our lives go. Love and connection is what makes life entirely worthwhile. Money is everything else.

If we accept the notion that the High Road is doing what’s right and not necessarily what’s easy, being a benevolent hero in the service of yourself is pretty much it: Daring to love yourself as much as you do others; being bold in defending what’s just and right; not letting bullies and bad behaviour win.

The brilliant psychologist Gabor Mate talks about the “Myth of Normal.” His experience is that there’s no such thing as a normal/abnormal divide but that we’re all on a continuum where mental distress is either more or less present in each of us.  Put another way, we’re all at least a little bit crazy/neurotic/ depressed/anxious/emotionally messy/you-name-it.

“Wow. I’m way too old to do something like that,” said someone younger than I am. To which I could only say “this is the youngest I’m ever going to be again. I think I’m too old not to.”

Which is why embracing conflict, getting comfortable with it, is foundational for spiritual and emotional health and basic happiness. When conflict is managed with respect for ourselves and others, the whole world gets better: When we speak our truth we stand in our power, lifting everyone around us to a higher standard of fearlessness and authenticity.

What may be news is that you’re creating a personal brand all the time, every day, whether you like it or are aware of it or not. Given this, the wise thing is to be conscious and create your reputation with intention.

So I wonder: What if I’d always had the calm confidence of knowing I was beautiful instead? Inside and out? We are not closed systems, and given that every part of ourselves touches every other part, I don’t think too dramatic to consider that MY WHOLE LIFE WOULD BE DIFFERENT.  Better, different. Less pain and outright trauma, different.

A beautiful and hopeful future is in the hands of those able to actively hold space for miracles, and if once believing reindeer could fly gives them something to draw on, then I’m all in... I’m thinking now of a line from a Roald Dahl book: Those who don’t believe in magic, will never find it.

Cynicism tears things down. Like all destruction, it’s easy. It’s lazy. When you think the world is doing an end-run around all things good and right for all things selfish and mean, hope is hard. Except I would argue the world only looks like that because you’re looking too narrowly. Cynicism needs to justify itself.

A new distinction has arisen between copywriters who persuade or get people to “take action” and those who simply create content - those who write to educate or enlighten. 

Have you ever been drunk with the illusion that you are “a really good actor?” Are you a terrible poker player, despite being a pretty good strategist? Are you often really, really mad at your face as it betrays you - yet again - at the most inopportune time?

You may suffer from Resting Too-Much-Information Face.