There is a second, concerning virus that piggybacked on Covid, opportunistically coming in the door that the physical virus opened. It is the virus called Fear.

We’re almost there my friends. We’re at the finish line of 2020: the craziest, weirdest, most tumultuous, contentious, painful, scary, exhausting year that most of us have ever seen.

There is a mantra I love that can help enormously with this process we call Life, a mantra that really should be a Core Principle for Living. Here it is.

Division, anger, violence … our political landscape is truly disturbing. Here are some gentle reminders of how to avoid the “us and them” trap.

We get to choose our attitude and approach to life, even in the storm. That choice is very simple: Do I choose fear, or do I choose love?

Chinese medicine calls viruses “Pernicious Evil Influences,” which sums it up pretty perfectly. They are all three of those things. But while viruses are nasty, the anxiety they generate is worse.

I’ve been dealing with some big issues lately, things that hurt my brain and stir my emotional pot; things that if not kept on a tight rein release a toxic tsunami of anxiety. So I picked up Eckhardt Tolle’s A New Earth to try to get some perspective.

What do Donald Trump, a trip to Costco, and my dog have in common? More than you might imagine. A strange confluence of events culminated this morning in a surprising, personal revelation.

I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately. Not the When Harry Met Sally sort, or the infatuation/lust/heartbreak/revenge tedium on the radio that makes my 10-year-old daughter ask, with a look of pure nausea and disgust on her face, “Why are all the songs about love?”

Trust is tricky. It’s all very easy to have trust when everything is going swimmingly; it’s another thing altogether to maintain total trust when you’re hanging on by your fingernails. Or fins. Whatever.

Dragons are the mythological, metaphorical expression of our innermost fears; the sea they inhabit our unknown future.

We store all sorts of things, tangible and intangible. We hold on to worn-out dreams and old resentments as hard and fast as old LPs and half-used cans of paint.

Letting go and allowing, rather than holding fast to a dubious certainty, is the journey to something more. It is the journey that reveals what has been in you all along.

What do monkeys, the new year, and spiritual growth have to do with one another? Amazingly, quite a lot.