Living Peacefully Blog
NVC Academy’s 15th Anniversary
I am writing to you today with excitement, joy, and awe because today is the NVC Academy’s 15th Anniversary!!! Wow! Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about how we got started. At the time, Mark Schultz and I were both involved in starting the NVC Arizona...
Who Sets YOUR Priorities?
The other day, my spouse and I were driving down a busy 4-lane road, and we were in a hurry to get some place important. Then we saw a mama duck with many small ducklings trying to get across the street. Kim pulled over and we both hopped out to stop 4 lanes of...
Planting Your Garden
As we enter the beginning of spring, I am thinking about planting a vegetable garden. I haven’t had my own vegetable garden for many years. During 2020, we stayed in a home for about 10 months that had gardens other people planted and we harvested. That growing season...
Hope
Happy April Fool’s Day, which, according to Wikipedia, is an annual custom on April 1st consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. I always think of my Mom on April Fool’s Day because she was mostly a very stern person who scorned practical jokes, but on April Fool’s...
Noticing What Nurtures You
The other day, I noticed the tiniest little daffodil bud growing in my neighbor’s yard, and it gave me such joy because it means spring is coming. Then, earlier today I stopped working long enough to take this picture of an unknown-to-me bird who had landed on a new...
Choosing Inner Quiet
Brrrr. Is it winter where you live? Here in southern California, the winters are mild and yet still chilly. When I lived in Flagstaff, Arizona, we had 100 inches of snow on average in the winter months. And, believe it or not, I loved shoveling snow because of the...
What Are You Choosing to Bring Into the New Year?
Welcome to 2021! I’m celebrating the possibilities of this New Year and I hope you are too. Just this afternoon, I led a group of NVC enthusiasts from around the world in a 20-minute meditation to welcome in peace and healing to all living beings. It was utterly...
Taking Deep Breaths
As I sit down to write this, I find I am struggling with what to say. I notice that I feel both deeply weary and humbled to realize that this is the last month of 2020… I usually take time to reflect on the passing year in December, and begin to shape my plans for the...
Embracing Humility, Finding Freedom
This past weekend, my wife, Kim, and I went to a friend’s house. I confess it has been hard for me to access JOY these past few months, for reasons I suspect are affecting many of us, so this particular visit with friends was a welcome respite. At one point, I was...
Self Care: Courage in the Midst of Life
I have been taking time to read books lately, which is a kind of luxury I sometimes neglect despite how nurturing reading can be for me. In a moment of extreme stress and tension, I picked up two books that are reminding me of courage, self-care, authenticity, how...