A friend once spoke to me about constantly having to push a certain memory away, because it caused him so much emotional pain. He wanted to run from the memory, or deny it. Pushing it away was a full time…

Rumi, the Sufi poet, once told a story about a guy who worked for years as a tanner. His job was to soften rawhide, using manure to turn it into fine leather. So, he breathed in the stink of manure…

I’ve been giving some thought lately to where we can go when we’re not “allowed” to go anywhere. You could say this is the same message you’ve heard me deliver before, but how can any of us resist a good…

by Barbara Emrys We’ve come to the end-of-year holidays again. You could say, “Oh, boy, but this year is different…how do we meet social obligations?…travel is so challenging…the fun is already ruined.” You could say those things, and maybe you’d…

by Barbara Emrys This morning, while I was sitting at an outdoor café, I heard a baby saying “blah-blah-blah!” loudly and clearly. “Blah-blah-blah!” Just like that. Her dad was talking to another dad, and “blah-blah-blah!” was what she heard them…

by Barbara Emrys In a time when it should be easy to come up with topics to write about, I can’t decide on any single one. Maybe there’s just too much going on these days. There’s a deep and growing…

by Barbara Emrys Hello again! Here we are at summer’s end, caught in the current of an approaching autumn. Maybe your routine has already changed and you’re totally preoccupied with school, career, and the future. Or, after so many months…

Lately, our group conversations have been about setting personal boundaries. So, let’s go over some of what we discussed. Setting a boundary is making a simple statement about what we can and cannot do, and what we are willing or…

from Barbara Emrys Did you ever stop and ask yourself why you’re afraid, even when things are going well? And why do you get so cranky and combative in certain situations? We all accumulate a lot of poison– poison that…

I had a dream last night, where I was teaching a two-day workshop to a large group of students. As I walked in the classroom on the first morning, I was surprised to see all the women wearing Indian saris.…