Staying Power Podcast with Phyllis Cole-Dai

These days, we seem to think we already know everything we need to know about everybody else, when in fact we only know our own opinions about them. What if we were more curious?Note: This podcast will be discontinued in a few weeks. Thereafter Phyllis will post her reflections on her YouTube channel.

Phyllis reflects on the "three-ring circus of community" that followed last week's invitation to sign her red "I AM PART OF EVERYBODY" coat. Guaranteed to warm your spirits!This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Subscribe at phylliscoledai.com.

Phyllis is wearing her bright red winter coat again, decorated with hundreds of signatures from strangers in at least eight languages. A visual reminder of the power of community, it's big enough to hold the world. Care to sign? Email her at phyllis@phylliscoledai.com.This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Subscribe at phylliscoledai.com.

This love story between a man, his wife, and his clarinet nudges us to tap into our creative self when going through a tough patch. Doing so helps to restore balance in our wounded spirits.This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Subscribe at phylliscoledai.com.

These days I'm seeing a lot of tired people. “Pandemic fatigue” or “coronavirus burnout,” the experts are calling it. But the garden teaches us we can't rush what can't be rushed.This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Subscribe at phylliscoledai.com.

Creative inspiration (the Muse) often comes as a surprise visitor, as if from beyond ourselves. Here's what to do when the Muse visits you. (Learn more about the poem-book in this episode.)This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.  

A night hike inspires pure wonderment at how magical the world appears in varied shades of black; at how, without light, our eyes surrender to the guidance of other senses; at how phenomenally those senses team up to navigate a safe way through; at how profound ignorance of what's coming next forces us to pay attention to every step we take. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

Gratefulness and humor can help us meet and overcome adversity. In that spirit, here's a rather light-hearted list of 45 silver linings Phyllis has found in the clouds of her pandemic isolation. (She'll be on hiatus the next two weeks.)This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

All around us, small, frightened voices are saying, “What you need is gone.” The voice of abbondanza says, “What you need is here. Even now.” What we need is within us, among us, around us—just waiting to be tapped. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

Sometimes a childhood game is just a game. Sometimes it's far more. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, some of us want—even need—our children to return physically to school. Others of us can’t bear the thought of it. How do we come together?This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

The Norwegian word dugnad (doog-nod) is the collective effort of individuals who temporarily sacrifice their personal desires for the benefit of their community or country, especially in hardship. Maybe we've all got some dugnad inside us.This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

Asking for help—like offering it—can lead to great and unexpected things. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

A visit to the headwaters of the Mississippi River yields valuable lessons for living through a pandemic, or just living, period. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

The words of a retired firefighter and the death of a 10-year-old boy prompt this meditation on kindness. it’s a “pebble in the water” whose ripples spread in ways we’ll never be aware of. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

On this July 4th holiday weekend, a story from a long ago Independence Day inspires the desire for greater interdependence.This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

Do you work hard? Sometimes too hard? Call it “passion” or “devotion” or “loving what you do,” but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. For now, take a break and join Phyllis on the playground of poetry. This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

In this Father's Day episode Phyllis recounts a remarkable story from her family's 1976 bicentennial vacation. When help comes in an unexpected form, are we willing to receive it?This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

The sun’s setting fast. You hurry, wanting to walk home before dark. But you glimpse a line of people in the backyard of a humble house. They're ranked like a row of tin soldiers, socially distanced, standing at attention. What are they up to?This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.

The world's a hard schoolroom. Our homework is overwhelming: Slow the pandemic. Create tens of millions of jobs. End police brutality. Establish racial justice.... Every assignment counts heavily and is already overdue. Where to begin? By remembering "the one true thing."This podcast is part of Staying Power: Your Virtual Care Package for the Pandemic. Get your free subscription here.