Barcelona has a love for the natural world. Nestled between the mountains and the Mediterranean sea, its tree-lined streets and boulevards lead inevitably to green or blue. In our short visit, we saw tributes to nature everywhere, from the seaside…
#4 The Spanish Butterfly Blog: Yes, Thank You!
Cadiz, Spain hangs out into the Atlantic Ocean like a mitten on a string. Its narrow and winding cobblestone streets force all the cars to its edges leaving the old town as it has been for centuries – a pedestrian…
#3 The Spanish Butterfly Blog: Everyone Whom We Have Loved
The ancient coastal town of Cadiz, Spain feels like it’s in a time warp. Roman artifacts, narrow winding cobblestoned streets, wrought iron balconies, and antique churches create a sense of timelessness. The Phoencian fishermen who settled here in 800 BC…
#1 The Spanish Butterfly Blog: Expansion and Transformation
When I was 17, during the hot, hot summer of 1980, I left my hometown of Dallas, Texas with a group of students to live for 9 weeks in Segovia, Spain. Before I left, my mother said, “This trip is…
Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: Doing Nothing and the Art of Niksen
I recently became acquainted with a Dutch concept called Niksen. Niksen is the art of doing nothing. The idea is, well, to just sit there. No work, no distractions. No Facebook or journaling. No counting your breaths or repeating a…
The Secret to Inner Peace
Amazingly, 2017 marks 20 years of my life in New Hampshire. Why is this amazing? Because I don’t like cold winters. I don’t ski, snow shoe, ice skate, drive, or even walk when there is snow about – I simply…
Eat, Pray, Learn
I recently went on a personal adventure to Antigua, Guatemala. It was my own miniature version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Well, she traveled for an entire year (to Italy, India, and Bali) and I only went away for…
Gratitude Glasses
It happened on the heels of a wonderful weekend away. I had just spent four days and three nights on a spiritual retreat praying and meditating, contemplating the gifts of life. I was aglow with gratitude. And then, shortly after…
Are You A River or A Lake?
Life, like a river, can at times be rushing, wild, and swift. You can have days, years, even decades that resemble the high intensity energy of a river. Yet, life can also be like a lake — calm, spacious, and…
Doing Nothing
I’m taking a class on “Reflection” and our first homework assignment was to do nothing for 10 minutes a day; no reading, no music, no magazines or emails, no chanting, no singing, no meditation even! At first, I thought, Will…