Last week, my husband stepped on a chipmunk while trying to avoid another one scurrying across his path. It died instantly. To say this affected him is an understatement. He called me from work. I stepped on a chipmunk. I killed it. Oh my God, was all I could say. Whoa. Other than that, which I said without a thought, I didn't know what to say. I noticed how I wanted to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault. Then I remembered the other way, the one I learned through Focusing: patient and...

I am in bed in the daytime. So probably sick. I am 4, maybe 5, and bored. And then I see them. They are floating above me, from right in front of my eyes all the way to the window. They’re tiny, these little things. I reach up to touch one and they scatter, like shy creatures, leaving just my hand in the light. I let out a little sigh, and let my hand drop. But just as I forget about them, they come back! Here they are again, these dancing, floating little somethings. If I hadn't already been...

Sometimes I see an older person in a café and imagine them as a little kid. And sometimes I see babies and am struck by how much they resemble someone really old. Does this happen to you? The other day my friend Ginger was describing a recent evening with her 14-year-old niece — how one moment her niece would be all grown up, and the next she'd be giggling like a little kid, making the same face she's been making since she was 3. There was such tenderness in how Ginger spoke. Such love and...