Don’t try this at home. Or do, and write a book about it.

As I was flying into New York City a couple of weeks ago, I thought about all the interesting experiments going on there at any given time.  Truly, the thought first occurred to me after seeing Julie and Julia -  all these quirky New Yorkers doing something for a year and then blogging or writing [...]

By the numbers.

There was a particular lament I remember hearing frequently as I was going through school: “When will I ever use this in the real world?”  It might have been in English class, or history, or science, or math, or most likely, all of the above.  Now that I think about it, I was probably doing the [...]

Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Picky Eaters*

 
I had to laugh when I came across Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton, because for no explicable reason, I sometimes say to myself “I’m a hungry monkey.” Usually when I’m hungry. I also connected to the book because I consider myself a recovering picky eater. It wasn’t [...]

What I didn’t read.

I just recently signed up for a class that has a required text. Unfortunately, that means I had to return a number of library books unread – gasp! Yes, it pains me.  So I’m going to tell you what they were so that at least one of us will get to read them.  Imagine me [...]

weeding

I am not a big fan of gardening, but I love to weed. Now don’t get me wrong, I delight in the bounty of the garden, which, aside from being beautiful and delicious, has the added benefit of being temporary, and thus not adding to the accumulation of stuff. Around me, friends and relatives are [...]

summer reading

Ah, summer.  Time to relax, take a vacation, lie in the grass…  or not.  Kids may get the lazy days of summer, but many of us adults keep going to work, schlepping the kids around, running errands and pretty much continuing what we do all year round.  Still, that’s no excuse not to participate in Adult [...]

In pursuit of brevity

I love to play charades, Pictionary, Cranium, basically any game where you have to try to guess what another person is trying to “say.”  Unfortunately, I sometimes feel like my life is one of those games.  Either the word I’m looking for won’t come to my head, or I lose track of what I’m saying [...]

Just in case.

I got into a small car accident a couple of weeks ago, the best kind, as those things go:  no one was hurt, and no one threatened to sue.  Some folks aren’t quite so lucky, though.  There are all sorts of ways one can find oneself involved in a legal situation; in fact, the law [...]

a whole lotta nothing

I am eternally grateful to Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and A New Earth, for introducing me to the idea that I am not the constant stream of chatter that goes through my mind, but instead the observer of it. Tolle suggests focusing on what he calls “the inner body,” feeling your [...]

Money Matters

With banks, foreclosures, and economic woes in the news these days, are you feeling confused about how best to handle your money? Perhaps you’ve always been strapped for cash, and now you’re ready to buckle down and figure out your finances. Or you’re at a place in your life — whether it’s your first job, [...]