Life Journeys Counselling & Training: Sue Genest MSc, CCC.

01/30/2026

01/30/2026

daughter

01/25/2026

Same-sex sexual behavior isn’t rare or anomalous in the animal kingdom, and a major new study shows it may be deeply rooted in evolution.

Researchers analyzed data from 491 non-human primate species and documented same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) in 59 of them. Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study explored how ecology, social structure, and life history traits shape when and where SSB appears.

The findings suggest environment matters. SSB was more common in species living in harsher conditions, including drier climates, areas with limited food, or regions with higher predator pressure. Social factors also played a role. Species with longer lifespans, complex social systems, or pronounced differences between males and females were more likely to engage in SSB.

Rather than being a biological oddity, the researchers argue that SSB may help animals navigate social relationships, form alliances, and maintain group cohesion. Overall, the study challenges long-held assumptions and shows this behavior has multiple evolutionary origins.

01/24/2026

Rephrasing is important

01/23/2026

01/22/2026

The Bushmen of the Kalahari speak of two kinds of hunger.

The first is the small hunger. The hunger for food. The simple, physical need to put something in your body so you can keep going, keep breathing, keep living.

But there is another hunger. A deeper one. They call it "The Great Hunger".

It is the hunger for meaning. The hunger that does not live in the stomach, but in the chest and the bones. The kind you feel in quiet moments, in the silence behind your eyes. It is the need to belong, to matter, to understand why you are here at all.

Laurens van der Post, the man in this photograph, spent years living among the Bushmen. He did not go to teach. He went to listen. To learn. To remember things the modern world has slowly forgotten.

He once said that the most dangerous thing in life is not sadness. It is emptiness. The slow erosion that happens when a person lives without meaning.

So many of us spend our lives chasing money, status, comfort. We chase happiness as if it is the final destination. But happiness comes and goes. Meaning stays.

When you are doing something that truly matters to your soul, it does not matter if you feel good all the time. You feel grounded. You feel connected. You feel part of something larger than yourself.

And in that belonging, even hardship begins to carry purpose.

This photograph is not just a meeting between two men. It is a quiet meeting between two ways of Being. One that remembers we are not only bodies that need to be fed, but spirits that need to be fulfilled.

And maybe that is the hunger we have been trying to satisfy all along.

01/21/2026

Old wounds don’t show up as memories. They show up as reactions. What feels automatic now was once necessary, shaped by what you needed to survive. Here’s what to try now. 💛

01/21/2026

Awakening begins when comfort no longer feels like freedom.
Today, I choose truth over walls, faith over fear, and growth over hiding.

01/20/2026

Maya Angelou /
"Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees."