[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Our last family picture on Ivy & Hunter's last day with us."][/caption] Well the time came this past weekend. Our two dogs, my wife’s and my first “children”, graduated to the dog park in the sky. Ivy (16 year old Blue Merle Australian Shepherd) and Hunter (14 year old Black Chow Shepherd mix) lived long, relatively healthy lives, and in the end we felt that we had to assist them along their journey to allow them to leave with dignity and not wanting them to unduly suffer. Both Ivy and Hunter were adopted after an early life...

I think we have all heard of a Mid-Life Crisis; well, I would like to add a wrinkle to this in discussing the Mid-Life Christmas. In my work as a therapist, I have had countless experiences with those in their late 30 to 40 “somethings” who find that the holidays are feeling emptier and emptier, and they are searching for the meaning in the holiday season. As adults, the holiday season is often rushed, and in our world of work and life, coincides with year-end deadlines, quotas to be reached, household issues to be taken care of, and the span between...

I had an interesting talk with a client once about judgment and the influence that it had on their life. It really got me thinking – and it doesn’t take much to get me thinking. The discussion we had headed toward the concepts of Love versus Judgment. Through this discussion I felt that we came to some powerful insights, for them and for me. Perhaps the most powerful insight was the conclusion that Love is the opposite of Judgment. Let me help explain how we came to this conclusion, and why it is important. For many of us, we have been...