I'm in a very bright, happy mood tonight - for no particular reason. I laid in groceries in preparation for cooking for the family tomorrow. I even bought flowers, something I haven't done in a year or more. I felt useful at work today. A great horned owl hooted at me when I was walking home at dusk yesterday. The waxing crescent moon was setting orange in an indigo sky and the temperature was mild. Next week we will dip into the fifties - probably my favorite temperature decade) though I prefer it when the highs, not the lows are in the fifties)decade. I know the economic news is terrible and many people I know are suffering for many reasons - and still, tonight I sit at my table with the windows open and smile.

I just finished the book My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, and between that and the introspection of the High Holy Days, I'm probably more aware of mood than usual. Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist who suffered and recovered from a severe stroke, and she writes about the locus of emotions and attitudes in the brain, the amount of power she learned to have over her emotional reactions as a result of the experience of losing access to her left - story- teller - critic brain after the stroke. So much of what she writes is what I believe and teach in the wise person work I do for myself and with my clients. She gives scientific, physical backing what I believe and experience and what many spiritual traditions teach about the destructive power of attaching to emotions . I never would have read this book without my book group (Thank you book group) and I am inspired and excited (cheered actually) by it.

I also love a quote which Dr. Taylor uses as her email tagline.

"I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be."

Albert Einstein