Dr.Heiko's blog

...I recently joined the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) organization as Secretary of the Board of Trustees in January. When board members took a scheduled break during our recent retreat in Fresno, CA , we were advised to walk outside the hotel silently, and to savor everything in our path.  A number of us, of course, took this suggestion quite seriously.

...means a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation for a gift or favour.  The poet Mary Oliver writes, in her poem Gratitude:  "What did you notice?...What did you hear?...What did you admire?...What astonished you?...What would you like to see again?...What was most tender?...What was most wonderful?...What did you think was happening?...so the gods shake us from our sleep."

...The reviewer for the book, The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks, states in her New York Times review that "Sacks is most engaged by the process of compensation, how people make up for what they have lost...I found myself longing for the return of the ideal doctor of earlier chapters, and then I saw.

Patience.  Persistence.  Taking your time to drip the wet sand, drop by drip by drop. Planning out the four islands of towers, two massive ones and two smaller ones. Linking each of the islands with small sticks and an open arched doorway, inviting the sea to come take a look.

...Baseball great Dizzy Dean was famous for bragging about his prowess at the game.  Maybe it's time we acknowledge that some of our finest work is worth "crowing" about.  We were fortunate to witness our daughter's graduation from her community school last month.

...I've been examining the meaning of "spring", which comes from the old English "wellspring".  It can mean "a usually rapid return to normal shape after removal of stress" or "a small stream of water flowing naturally from the earth".  Both definitions are so appropriate for our family this season.  They both define our state of being:  resiliency.

We just helped our oldest move into his first real apartment.  The one he is paying for himself.  It was different and less scary than when we left him, eyes blinking wide, at his dorm room at college.

...was just this past February, when I was viewing the frozen Hudson from a train window.  I'd lived in New York State for many years, yet I'd never actually seen the great river iced over.  It was amazing watching the Coast Guard Cutter breaking up the ice as well, to forge a trail for an inland passage.

...we were watching Tangled, the newest Disney movie.  It struck me, as I looked over the shining, enchanted eyes of our adolescents that the joys of discovering the world and love are too numerous, too mysterious to try to capture in words.

...our daughter has a terrifyingly succinct way of getting to the heart of the matter at hand. Recently, we were at the sea's edge, staring out at the greying sky and waves at the start of the East Coast hurricane season, when she came out with this statement.  What else could we do except enjoy the moment...until we were either told to leave the island or continue our vacation?