Worldwide Stew

Go to Your Room

I suspect my Mom wasn’t the only parent who responded to her children’s loud disagreements and fighting by telling us to go to our rooms.

It was good advice. When we get caught up in fight (part of the fight, flight, faint network), the chemicals coursing through our bodies want to defend ourselves from fear of shame, embarrassment, and , occasionally, physical injury.

Often, the most mindful way of navigating our fear, anger, and doubt is to separate ourselves from the circumstances. This is especially true if we can learn to be aware of arousal. Awareness can be our Earkly Warning System! It gives us space to rewrite the story we’re telling ourselves. Usually, that’s the problem: the story that’s taken residence in our mind. They’re taking advantage of us. They don’t value my feelings. They always treat me this way.

Why can't we be friends?

If canines and apes can cooperate, why can’t humans?

The excellent documentary, Inside the Mind of a Dog on Netflix makes the case that dogs relate to humans because they are creatures that value cooperation. In fact, this was a surprising evolutionary development. The dogs we have come to know, value, and love, have done so as a result of their desire to cooperate. They long for connection and cooperation.

On propagation

Around April of each year, I order praying mantis egg pods, also called an ootheca.

About a month to eight weeks after their arrival around a hundred and fifty baby praying mantises are ready, chipper, and anxious to get out into the garden. It’s one of the happiest days of my year: baby release day.

But, I rarely see them after that. Then last week, Barb saw one on a decorative light out front.