OWLcourage
a blog invested in hope and creative possibility

We humans organize our individual and communal biographies using an “invented” device called “roles”. In the US, all cultures and sub-cultures are shaped by this “invention”, and they often have a disproportionate impact on what occurs and fails to occur. It starts early. Family cultures assign, define, implement and monitor these roles, as do social systems, religious systems, economic systems and political systems. Using family as a point of departure, and to demonstrate t

My decision to spend my late adolescent and early adult years in a convent had a long list of consequences, some more troublesome than others, and some a bit quirky. I place my knowledge and skill about appropriate make up for women in the quirky category. I missed the exploratory, training and course correction stages of make-up mastery for women. As a result, I can stand at the L’Oréal display in my local CVS and simply dither. It also, however, makes it possible for me t

An early pause for exploration in my journey toward Wisdom Work was catalyzed by my curiosity about the words we use in our society to reference aging and the aged. In creating this blog site, I made a sardonic decision to use what I viewed as the most troublesome words to reference my place in our current places of division and discord (Old, White, Lady). The one referring to age was “Old”. The word “Old” is in general not particularly attractive, though “antique” lovers can

My conceptualization of “Wisdom Work” did not, like Athena (the Goddess of Wisdom) spring fully armored out of Zeus’s head. I had to work for it. My first foray involved my usual effort at a deep dive through books…lots of books. While they provided an occasional insight, they failed to assuage my curiosity. They intensified it. I had for years conducted full day workshops on generational conflict, and had developed an awareness of my own space in the array of generational