Photo by Mike Peel
As the year draws to a close, these year-end list do as well. To end this year on a high note, we would like to look back on some of our must-read blogs, in case you have missed them. Use the quiet days as 2014 winds down to read instead of shop the pseudo-post-Christmas “bargains.” Again, without further ado, and again, with the hope that readers will start contributing their own so that this list will grow:
Must-Read Blog Posts from the New Existentialists in 2014 (in no particular order, and by no means the only ones):
Holding Fire With Parchment: Personal Power and Greatness Through Soul Loss by Drake Spaeth: A lovely voyage through “soul loss” and vulnerability, and then through the heroism of healing.
Floating Shards of Ice: Insights from a Frozen Urban River by Drake Spaeth: What do we learn from the frozen shards of Lake Michigan? A history of river—of its ebbs and flows—as well as a story of psyche. When we stop to look, to stay present, what can we learn from the nature that surrounds us, even on our daily commute to work?
Waxing Existential: Summer of Awe by Sibel Golden: An experience of summer camp so many years ago can still resonate in the here-and-now. When we look back at our own stories, and see the mystery and moments of awe in our own existence, how much richer our present lives become!
The Poet as Revolutionary by Candice Hershman: Write. Use language to change to expand your boundaries, to transcend your existence. And have faith in your ability to create poetry.
Compassion in the Land of NIMBY by Veronica Lac: What would you do if your friends or neighbors expressed views that opposed every fiber of your being? Could you find a way to still co-exist, and maybe even to educate rather than rage?
Jumping Off the Deep End: Lessons on Letting Go by Mark Yang: Do you swim in the deep end most days but struggle to stay afloat? The pool becomes the source for deep life lessons—how we do one thing—e.g., swim—may be how we do everything.
Surrendering Our Obsession With Certainty: Overcoming the Disease of Dogmatism, Part One by Scott Kiser: Can we open to the possibility that some of the things we believe may not be as we believe them to be? Furthermore, if we open to those possibilities, are we willing to lose debates or even elections in order to surrender the need to be right at all costs?
Myth: The Mind-Body Connection by Susan Gordon: Is myth how we create meaning in the world or is it actually built into our central nervous systems, our physical beings?
Compassion as Intentional Practice by Jyoti Nanda: When we set compassion as our intention, we see our compassion grow and change as part of an ongoing practice rather as some goal to achieve and conquer. Practice means we continue, we are always growing and never finished. Compassion does not end.
At-Home in the Elsewhere by Greg Madison: How can we feel “at home”? What is the difference between feeling at home and feeling like we belong? How do we create existential “security”?
And last (for now), but certainly not least…
For the mothers:
Raising the White Flag by JoAnn Loo: on the experience of being pregnant and practicing existential therapy.
And for the fathers:
The 7 Unexpected-nesses of Fatherhood by Zheng Liren: on what an existential practitioner has discovered in his experiences of his early days of fatherhood.
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