This is your life. Right now.

by Jill Sockman

I love to cook, and over the years have gotten pretty good at it.  No one ever “taught” me how to cook, I absolutely cannot be bound to using a recipe, and the big downside, according to friends and family, is that you’ll never enjoy the same meal twice.  But believe me when I tell you, I got it wrong pretty regularly before I started getting it right.  As we start a new year and I begin another journey around the sun, I’m struck by how what happens in my kitchen is some kind of metaphor for my journey in life.… Read the rest

Step outside the Kingdom of Comfort

by Jill Sockman

So, here’s a little question for you. How much are you missing out on in order to stay warm, stay dry, stay safe or stay comfortable? I’m beginning to realize that the older I get, the more I just might be missing.

There was a time in my life when adventure was de rigueur. I was pretty uninterested in comfortable, as it generally meant *boring*! While I suppose there are elements of maturity and practicality at play here, there are also elements of complacency, fear, laziness and wayyy too much time spent in my comfort zone.… Read the rest

Seeing with new eyes

by Jill Sockman

I took last week off to get in a 5-day Tantra intensive with my teacher. There was a very small group of us for this training — only 22 — and the training was held in a retreat center on the Baja peninsula — about halfway between Cabo and Todos Santos. For those of you who don’t know the terrain, it’s beautiful desert land along the rugged Pacific coast. There’s a striking beauty to the contrast between the dry scrub and cactus and the wild sea that feels so powerful, so raw.

The center where we stayed (we’ll be taking a retreat/continuing education trip there next year!)… Read the rest

In the habit of busy?

by Jill Sockman

I’m a list maker and I always have been. I think the source of the habit is two-fold: part because of the inexplicable glee I get from crossing items off said list and part because my brain is incapable of remembering more than three things at any given time. And so I have lists: things to do, groceries/supplies to buy, books to read, projects to begin/complete — even the list of lists is endless. They live in multiple notebooks, on my computer, in my phone, on the back of receipts in my wallet and in general, I am not sure if I’m bound by or held together by these endless notes.… Read the rest