Some days it's cloudy and it rains, and other days the sun shines. And so it is with our life. We can dwell on the "bad weather" we are experiencing, or we can live accordingly and yet look forward to the next sunshiny experience. 

The new issue focuses on personal responsibility, and interestingly enough yesterday while I was at my local farmers' market, I overheard someone saying that they personally did not want to have to assume responsibility for anything in their own life. What???

It's time for us to be real, to be true to what we know is right, to be the best loving compassionate person we can be. It's time to stand up for love, for compassion, for kindness. We can choose to bury ourselves in trivial matters...

One thing we all have in common is we all have, or at least had, a mother... thus we also had ancestors. We have a lineage from which we descend. This means we have certain traits we have acquired (skin color, eye color, build, etc.) as well as some personality traits and behaviors that we also have either inherited genetically or through modeled behavior.

In the children's game of tag (or hide-sand-seek), when you become the key player -- the one everyone else must find -- you're told "tag, you're it!". And in life, since we are all key players, we are always under the effect of the "tag, you're it!" energy...

The cover image for this week's InnerSelf Magazine is a picture of a gannet. This bird known for its graceful flight, powerful diving abilities, and strong social connections, can be said to symbolize: grace and focus, nurturing and community, as well as adaptability and resilience. These are all great life lessons for we humans bound to the earth by gravity.

We all have the freedom to start over any time... any day, any minute of the day. Whatever path we find ourselves on... arguing with someone, unhappy about something, we can hit reset...

When we learn to see that everything (and everyone) that comes our way brings a message, a teaching, a way to learn to see life from another perspective, to react differently, we can then traverse each challenge or event with a lot more calm and peace of mind...

Life is a journey... sometimes straightforward, and at other times, with detours, stop signs, yield signs. And though we sometimes think there are short-cuts, they are simply part of the journey.

The world can sometimes seem to be like a whirlwind and we often seem like we're getting caught up in the storm. Yet, we can find ways to reconnect with our inner self, our center, and ground our energies with the earth so we don't get carried away in the whirlwind of energies and emotions that may be swirling all around us.

Do no harm is a wonderful guiding principle to live by. And it covers so many things. The "traditional" thought in most religions is "thou shalt not kill" and while that definitely is included in do no harm, the precept of not causing harm goes so much further.

Peace is not always easily observed in the world around us, yet inner peace is a choice we make each moment of every day... and then that inner peace radiates out into the ethers and affects the energy of others around us and out into the world at large.

We all have questions, and the answers come from many sources. The closest one is of course from our own inner guidance, but the Universe provides answers to our queries through every...

Transformation applies to so many things. We can transform our health, our behavior (and our pet's behavior), our attitude, our spiritual life, our environment, our neighborhood, our country, our world. Transformation is another word for change. But it implies...

Just like the tides that go in and out, the sun who rises and sets, so our life has cycles. We face challenges, and then we attain success, and we continue our journey of life to the next challenge and success... and yes, sometimes we "fail" (or fall) and then get up and keep going, or maybe even change direction as needed.

Whatever is going on in life - in your life, the lives of the people around you, or in the world in general - things cannot remain the same. And I don't mean that just as wishful thinking, or hoping that things will change. Things cannot stay the same. It is an impossibility...

Power. Change. Crisis. These are words that may bring up feelings of discomfort, if not outright fear. Yet as with anything, there are always two sides to the story.

We can experience the challenges in our life with our head held high facing each challenge as something we can handle, or we can do so with our shoulders bent as if the weight of the world was upon them.

The song popularized by Frank Sinatra "My Way" famously states" "I did it my way". We all do it "our way" in whatever we do. We can't help but do it "our way" even when we are possibly trying to mimic others, or follow the "in" thing.

Superheroes are popular. We watch movies, read books, comics, play video games involving superheroes, and we talk about them and maybe even dream about them. Yet are we ignoring the only superhero that really counts?

You may have heard the story that we are drinking Cleopatra's bathwater... that the water (which is fluid energy) has been recycled and recirculated through the centuries. Everything already is in existence in the form of energy, and then it's up to us as to...

Listening is a doorway. When we listen to others, we can discover who they are, their dreams, aspirations, and get in touch with their heart. When we listen to ourselves...

Unless we change, things will remain the same. So unless you're 100% satisfied with the status of your life and the world, then things need to change... you need to change... we all need to change. We need to rethink how we do things, how we...