A couple of days ago I received a great book by Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun from Nova Scotia.
Now I'm working on the concept of Shenpa, the magnetic pull of bad habits and afflictive emotional patterns. This came in incredibly handy yesterday at my son's "intervention" meeting at school. I seem to have expressed myself poorly in French and said something that really offended Ben's teacher. Normally I think I would have given into old patterns of defensiveness, and believe me I'm still feeling them. But I'm also able to stand and just feel them and not let myself get badly sucked in.
It's a huge relief even to know that I'm capable of resisting these obsessive, defensive patterns.
