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White People, Please Stop Using Your Well-Meaning Outrage to Bypass the Real Work that Needs to be Done

If I may, I would just like to have a word with the other white folks like me who consider themselves to be anti-racism. This segment of the population has a hard time realizing how they’re part of the problem. Just because you’re not a hater and just because you care about racial equality doesn’t mean you get to rest on your laurels. Chances are, you’re perpetuating racial tensions without even knowing it. I’m having a hard time today as I observe all of the outcries against the racial injustices that are blowing up the internet because what I am observing is all of the well meaning white people doing what well meaning white people always do — making it about them while thinking they’re talking about justice. When will this stop? I am so upset! (notice how you’re talking about yourself?) I am shocked and irate by the news today. (notice how you’re talking about yourself?) I am outraged that this has happened yet again! (notice how you’re still talking about yoursel...
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I'm Moving!

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Hi friends! I'm playing around with a different writing platform that works a little better for me than blogger.com. I've started posting over on Medium and will likely start using that vehicle exclusively. If you would still like to receive my blog posts, please head on over to my Medium profile and click "follow":  https://medium.com/@8heatherwallace Thanks for journeying with me!  Big Love, Heather   
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From Self-Doubt to Self-Expression

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This morning, for no reason at all, I felt supremely discouraged about continuing a writing project that had really been on a roll. I'd been having the time of my life writing about creativity and overcoming the hurdles to creative expression, yet when I began to write this morning, it suddenly seemed absurd to be talking about creativity when I am an unknown nobody with no credentials in this subject area to my name. And to make matters worse I felt like a hypocrite because I had been yammering on about doing something simply because we love doing it without attachment  to the outcome and my own resolve  was wavering; the doubt became louder than the love. It seemed to me that I couldn’t walk my talk. I suspect that doubt is one of those things that will never  fully  vanish from our psyches as long as we are in these human suits navigating the realm of human experience. I used to spend a great deal of time trying to get to a place where fear, doubt,...
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A Note to the Empaths During Covid-19

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So here I am doing the thing I didn't want to do--adding my voice to the corona-convo which feels like adding more noise to a cacophony. I've honestly been trying to avoid the conversation altogether but that has proven impossible. I'm in information overload. I am trying to minimize my intake and yet here I am creating more information. A big (very big) part of me is being drug kicking and screaming to the writing of this post but there is another part of me that needs to write this thing so here we are. For those of you who are feeling overwhelmed, feeling bombarded (with information and with energy), feeling energetically exhausted, who are dealing with the virus situation on it's surface as everyone else is but also have the added burden of feeling and managing all of the energy around it too--this is for you. Because, of all the information being flung around, I have not yet seen any that addresses this unique population of sensitive, intuitive, empathi...
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The Dance

In the spring I began to dance with a partner I wouldn't have chosen for myself but one that undoubtedly keeps me on my toes. We think of people either having cancer or not having cancer. Benign or malignant. Black and white. I'm learning to dance in the grey area. For the last four months I have navigated each day with this one question in mind, "Do I or don't I have cancer?" Here's the quick backstory: A significant lump is found in my thyroid (only 5% chance of those being cancerous), further testing is done because of it's concerning size and shape and these tests reveal the presence of a particular gene cluster that bumps me up to a 50% chance of it being malignant. The biopsy comes back inconclusive as thyroid biopsies notoriously are. "So what are the odds that this is malignant?" I asked my doctor. "50/50" is his reply. A big fat MAYBE. The protocol in such cases is removal of the thyroid (no they can't just remove the n...
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I recently read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. If you've read it, you know. You know how heart wrenching it is. You know it's impossible to get through this book without navigating the terrain of your own grief for our broken world and for our brothers and sisters who suffer the greatest atrocities within it. As I was reading this novel that portrays a war torn country, and the atrocities inflicted by the Taliban, I stopped frequently to initiate conversations with my partner--mostly needing to vent my anger towards people who sadistically harm others "in the name of God". Nothing--I mean NOTHING--is more absurd to me than this. If you are committing violence in the name of God, you know nothing of God. This book riled me up and stirred my pot in big ways. My partner would roll his eyes and say, "You've got to stop reading this book". He didn't understand why I would choose to read something so profoundly horrific--why I would want to imm...
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Simple Medicine

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In ancient shamanic cultures, if a medicine man or woman was approached by a person complaining of feeling disheartened, dispirited or depressed the shaman would ask these questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? I heard this lovely message several weeks ago from a beloved teacher of mine while visiting a yoga center in Massachusetts. It resonated with me deeply--for its simplicity, for its truth. I arrived closed and constricted. Angry and impatient. Frustrated and annoyed. The divisiveness, the polarity in our world at this time was getting to me. I was stagnating in my judgment and frustration. I was over people and their shit. Surrounded by the beautiful Berkshire mountains I couldn't find my center. In wonderfully led yoga classes I couldn't find my center. And then I danced. Oh I danced! I danced from my root--heavy and ...
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