Julianne Harvey

The other day, a friend said, "I feel afraid because the squirrels are back, running around in my head and making me crazy.  All I'm doing, every single day, is trying to keep squirrel shit off my sidewalk and hoping they will go away so I can be sane again."

I loved this metaphor.  Instantly it rang true for me.  I never before considered my racing mind to be squirrels, ...

It's been 4 weeks since I began a Facebook detox, and I am really starting to see the changes in myself. My compulsive need to share every thought I have has lessened, and the itch under my skin to know what other people are doing or saying has also eased off.

It's not gone entirely, as evidenced by the fact that my profile remains.  Facebook is a genius way to stay in touch with f...

For the last two weeks I have been on a Facebook detox.  I cheated several times, but also held strong when I had guests in town and we did all kinds of fun things that I wanted to post but refrained in an effort to curb my addiction to oversharing.

Something about Jodie Foster's bizarre Golden Globes speech got to me.  She talked about how privacy has been surrendered and tha...

All too often, I allow something small to get under my skin and irritate me.  I read into a comment made, or a Facebook status, or assume the worst about myself in any given situation.

The truth is that nothing can bother us unless we allow it to.  We can either hold on, or we can let go.  It really is that simple.  I am practicing the art of surrender; of not taking...

This is my last blog post of 2012, so I thought I'd do a short review of the year, and end with an announcement about the future of my blog.  In January 2012 I decided to blog every other day instead of every day so I could focus more on the other writing projects I had on the go.  This small change helped a lot, as did William's transition into grade one in September.  Suddenly I had more time in each weekday to write, which felt ...

This week I have become aware that I am not prioritizing my tasks very well.  All of a sudden I realize that I am not spending my time the way I would like to be.  It's frustrating that I just reviewed where my time was going in mid-November and developed a workable plan to be more productive doing the writing I most wanted to be doing.

It worked for a while, and then suddenly...

I am taking a meditation class right now, and in the last session I heard the phrase, "Come and find rest."  I was in a peaceful place, where I let go of some things that were causing me stress and worry, and this phrase filled me with joy.

Resting has been hard for me for most of my life.  As a kid, I felt like I was always 'on'; watching for something to go off the rails so ...

In September, an author friend invited me to a Writers Guild of Alberta event which was this Tuesday night.  I said yes and had Jason mark it on his calendar to be home so I could go.  Then suddenly he had to go to Taipei.  I was a good wife and didn't blame him (much) for this as he had to go for work and his job accounts for the material things we enjoy like shelter, food, clothing and movies.

For the past week or so, I have found myself filled with a reasonless happiness.  I have come through a rough month, filled with challenging growth and hurts, and so to feel happy puts me off-kilter, as though the other shoe is about to drop.

I'm trying to discard this uneasy sense, and simply enjoy what I am feeling.  Life is about stages.  We feel thrilled and then mela...

Jason has been away a lot on business travel, and this time I am learning my lesson and repeating this word at the beginning of his trip: gently.  I end up expecting so much of myself on any given day, and balancing everything at home as the only parent takes a lot of emotional effort, and if I don't want to burn out I must move gently.

I'm not wired to be a gentle, calm and relaxe...