Emotional Training Helps Kids Fight Depression : NPR.
This is a brilliant effort at nipping the downward spiral in the bud when children are at their most formative, and it is definitely running parallel to what I am trying to work on with my son.
» Continue reading “Emotional Training Helps Kids Fight Depression : NPR”
I think my father lived in the shadow of a brother with whom he could never compete. This brother was well-liked, affable by all accounts. He died in combat in 1966, a casualty of the conflict in Vietnam. He died just shy of his 21st birthday and thus, he will always live and loom larger than his life in the memories of our family, frozen in time as someone who never did any harm, if only because he never had a chance. He’s untouchable. My father never stood a chance.
» Continue reading “Remembrance Day”
A Push For Colleges To Prioritize Mental Health : NPR.
When I was diagnosed as bipolar in 1997, I was diagnosed by a college psychiatrist. My first real experience with a psychiatrist and navigating the ins and outs of having a diagnosis and trying to find a treatment plan that would allow me to function was a key defining moment in my life. Reducing these services will only result in more students dropping out or opting out of college as an option. At this stage in life, at this age, university mental health services are often the only option students have for ever-increasing emotional problems.
» Continue reading “A Push For Colleges To Prioritize Mental Health : NPR”
Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class – CNN.com.
This is the ultimate in being your own best advocate. When you can’t find answer, continue looking, even if you have to go it alone. I think it especially highlights the need for quality control measures in pathology and medicine. We are allowed to routinely get second opinions on major decisions, but what about when lab results yield little help?
» Continue reading “Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class – CNN.com”
Earlier I blogged about community; one of the ideas presented was the idea that neighbors should “build a database of house locations, contact info, number and name of family members, number and name of pets, emergency numbers, etc for use during fire, earthquake or other disaster.”
When I opened my front door to see a geyser of flames shooting out from the chimney of the house across the street, I thought two thoughts. 1) Jiminy Crickets, is everyone OUT OF THE HOUSE?? (they were.) 2) We need emergency personnel, where’s the phone, I need to call 911 (I did and fire trucks were already en route). Once over the initial shock and emergency response, however, my next thoughts were how scarily appropriate my earlier post on community was. Our entire neighborhood turned out to help our unlucky neighbors, one neighbor with a flashlight, everyone concerned as to whether our neighbors got out of the house before it erupted like Vesuvius. We prayed the wind died down, loaned out driveways to get cars off the street so emergency vehicles could get through, and generally gathered in fellowship with a general air of “Do you need anything? Is there anything I can do?”
» Continue reading “Fire Across the Street Highlights Need for Disaster Preparedness”
Yesterday I came across this story on NPR:
A Social Experiment: Communes In Cul-De-Sacs : NPR.
The story is about “cul de sac” communes, planned neighborhoods where people share resources. Different from the Utopian societies of yore, where the main requirement was isolation from the rest of civilization, this cul de sac commune idea integrates modern culture with communal living.
» Continue reading “Commune vs. Community”
Iowa High Court Strikes Down Gay Marriage Ban : NPR.
I will never understand the fear and loathing surrounding the issue of gay marriage. If you don’t want one, don’t get one. Why shouldn’t love in all forms be celebrated? Aren’t the values embodied by marriage exactly the values we want to espouse? Separate is not equal. I hope I get to see true marriage equality in my lifetime. God loves us all exactly as we are.
Compare…
A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout
and contrast…
» Continue reading “Compare and Contrast”
“Optimists live longer, healthier lives than pessimists, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that may give pessimists one more reason to grumble.” I told you so!
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5247NO20090305?rpc=59
» Continue reading “Pollyanna and the Road to Immortality”
It’s a Tibetan saying. I thought it was doubly apt as the Dalai Lama is set to celebrate 50 years of exile from Tibet and the people of Tibet labor under oppressive restrictions on basic freedoms that we take for granted. But, I also found other meanings to it; I am sure that I could find a million ways to apply this saying to my life. Today, this one application trumped: I wanted to apply this idea of compassion to myself and others who tend to view themselves or others with a critical, skewed, even pessimistic perspective.
» Continue reading ““Who looks not with compassion sees not what the eyes of compassion see. “”
