Blog Article, Meditations
Kate Spencer
How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into ...

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen was right. Well, of course he was. In every life there are challenges that absolutely delight us, and other challenges that absolutely break us. The things that break us are not the challenges of small things. These are the big things of life. From lost jobs to lost friends, broken legs to broken hearts, being born into chaos, and dying all alone, we are both blessed and vulnerable to all that life can take. Every season of our lives is both a beginning and an ending.

How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces
Meditations
Kate Spencer
Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life

We are in the waiting room of the world. We are waiting to go forward to a new normal because going back to the old normal is not an option anymore. Not even close.

We are waiting parent by parent, child by child, teacher by teacher, for a reliable plan for the ongoing, steady presence of schools. And in the absence of a reliable plan, a path to incrementally getting to some reasonable facsimile, day by day.

Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life
Meditations
Kate Spencer
Kick-starting a Deeply Deferred Dream

My grandmother, Mable Hopper, was a mostly stern, serious woman, at least to my 5-year-old self. Small in physical stature, Mable had a big wit, a beautiful singing voice, and a depth of intelligence that did not suffer fools or foolishness gladly. I, being five, was full of foolishness.

Kick-starting a Deeply Deferred Dream
Blog Article
Kate Spencer
A Brother’s Death: COVID-19’s Collateral Damage

There are some sounds you never forget. The sweetness of your toddler’s voice, the off-key perfection of your best friend’s singing, the dependable snore of your snoozing dog.

There are some sounds that are so close to the heart and soul of your life that you never forget them. Sweet, reassuring sounds, like the joy and consolation of your big brother’s laughter.

A Brother’s Death: COVID-19’s Collateral Damage
Meditations
Kate Spencer
First Lessons From COVID-19

When the virus hit the United States, Washington State was brought to its knees. Washington is my home state and I live in the Eastern part of it, the part that by comparison, has been dealt a significantly less lethal blow than our west side neighbors. And still, in some fundamental, essential way, each of our lives across the entire planet have been dealt a lethal blow. Within that devastation may come our salvation.

First Lessons From COVID-19

Meditations

,

How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

,
How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen was right. Well, of course he was. In every life there are challenges that absolutely delight us, and other challenges that absolutely break us. The things that break us are not the challenges of small things. These are the big things of life. From lost jobs to lost friends, broken legs to broken hearts, being born into chaos, and dying all alone, we are both blessed and vulnerable to all that life can take. Every season of our lives is both a beginning and an ending.

Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life

Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life

We are in the waiting room of the world. We are waiting to go forward to a new normal because going back to the old normal is not an option anymore. Not even close.

We are waiting parent by parent, child by child, teacher by teacher, for a reliable plan for the ongoing, steady presence of schools. And in the absence of a reliable plan, a path to incrementally getting to some reasonable facsimile, day by day.

First Lessons From COVID-19

First Lessons From COVID-19

When the virus hit the United States, Washington State was brought to its knees. Washington is my home state and I live in the Eastern part of it, the part that by comparison, has been dealt a significantly less lethal blow than our west side neighbors. And still, in some fundamental, essential way, each of our lives across the entire planet have been dealt a lethal blow. Within that devastation may come our salvation.

Your Personal Climate Change

Your Personal Climate Change

Australia is currently burning with an unprecedented ferocity. Videos of people running for their lives, or desperately sheltering in water, are everywhere. Koalas, those mascots of Aussie charm, along with every other form of local wildlife, have nowhere left to run. Yes, Australia has had its share of fires in its legendary life, but this fire is unprecedented.

Make Time for the Precious Present

Make Time for the Precious Present

Last year, right around Christmas time, the town of Paradise, CA was in flames and people were literally running for their lives.

People running for their lives don’t think much about possessions, they think, in their adrenaline saturated terror, about who and what they love and the risk to both. They think about their kids, their family and friends, and the life they share in good times and bad.

How to Change the World Before You Get Out of Bed

How to Change the World Before You Get Out of Bed

So, climate change is real, people in high places can abuse power, and that soft, waffling flesh below your armpit is settling in for winter. Want a better world? Be a better you. 

By “better” I don’t mean smarter, thinner or richer. I don’t mean saint-like, martyr-like or reality TV-like.  I mean your very own version of your very best self. The one that you, and only you, wants to be, needs to be, and gets to be.

How to Stay Buoyant in Choppy Times

How to Stay Buoyant in Choppy Times

We all have them. We all have those days, weeks or months that drain the color from our cheeks, the spring from our step and the buoyancy from our hearts. We all have those times.

We all have those drains in our lives. Whether it’s a person, a project, or an ongoing set of trying circumstances that can’t be easily, or readily, or even ever changed, we all have something that drains our energy, decreases our resilience and detours or derails our plans. And sometimes, we’re the catalyst for all that mayhem in our own or other people’s lives, intended or not.

RX for Life: Rest, Wander, Imagine, Repeat

RX for Life: Rest, Wander, Imagine, Repeat

Go, go, go. I love the adrenaline of go. I love tight deadlines, multiple, multi-tasking projects, and to-do lists written in different, brightly colored markers. Yep, I like busy. At least I think I do. I’ve been writing to meet a deadline for so long that the deadline sometimes writes me into a corner. Then I multitask myself out and onward to the next list. Oh, the things I’ll get done!

The Power of One Blue Change

The Power of One Blue Change

I did not need, or want, a new car. I knew that to my core. My little grey SUV, Hoagie, had gotten me everywhere I wanted, and needed, to be for the past 11 years.

To car people, 11 years is a very long time. In the course of that time, the car value depreciates while the little dings, dents and miles grow. None of that mattered to me. Hoagie was my buddy. From work to play, in sun and snow, it wasn’t just a means of transportation, it was a four-wheeled friend.

Spring Cleaning for the Heart and Soul

Spring Cleaning for the Heart and Soul

This winter was, for most of us, what my wise mother would have aptly described as “a long-ass haul.” No snow for Christmas, but plenty in March. Temps so low outside that the dogs’ breath crystallized at first pant. Days as brief and dark as a Kafka short story. Seriously. It’s good to finally be looking at winter mostly from the rear-view mirror now. So damn good.

How to Rebuild Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

How to Rebuild Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

In every life there are times when all we can do is hunker down, hang on, buy a bagel and wait for the shit storm to pass. Sometimes that storm comes from external factors beyond our control. The company we work for goes under, or goes in a new direction, or needs to reduce workforce, or is bought by a new company that doesn’t need us. And that’s all assuming we had the good fortune to be employed in the first place.

Learning Compassion and Passing it On

Learning Compassion and Passing it On

Like a lot of children, I grew up with an alcoholic parent. I was the youngest child of my father’s second marriage. My dad was decades older than my mom. In my father’s maturity, my mother found a sense of safety and stability. In my mother’s youth, my father found a fresh start and a lighter heart. What they saw in each other was genuine. And like many couples, what they saw, revealed, and became to each other changed over the course of their marriage.

Hearing the Heartbeat of a Louder World

Hearing the Heartbeat of a Louder World

The world is getting louder. News—real, fake, insightful, dumb, heart wrenching, heartwarming, hilarious, maddening, muddying or clarifying—the whole world of news is in our face--and often, in our hand. I read most of the news on my phone and find that palm-sized version my delivery of choice. Somehow, it feels more manageable in that small, contained environment. I can turn it off whenever I like. At least I think I can.