The other day as I was tidying the house for some impending guests, which involved removing a basketball from the bathroom, relocating a caravan of toy trucks from beneath the dining room table, and emptying ping pong balls from most of the shoes in the entryway, I found myself reflecting on some of the things…
December 21 is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Locales above the Arctic Circle, including parts of Canada, Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Greenland, and the very northern tip of Iceland will experience 24 hours of total darkness. You can find out when the sun will rise and set where you…
My husband Aaron was a devoted viewer of Jack Horkheimer’s Star Hustler (now Stargazer) when he was growing up in the eighties. Aaron still knows his way around the night sky. Whenever we’re out after dark, he points out stars and planets and entertains me with stories about the constellations. I enjoy it. Moreover, I’ve…
I took swim and piano lessons and belonged to quite a few clubs at school, but when I think about my childhood, it’s the slowness I remember – infinitely long summer days, conversations with my parents that felt like they’d go on forever, leisurely afternoons of reading, wondering, day-dreaming and playing. Some of my friends…
A few years ago, gratitude became trendy. People started talking about gratitude journals, boxes, and notebooks. The Secret espoused that being grateful is a means to acquiring more material rewards – a better job, a new car, a diamond ring. Gratitude was supposed to be the answer to a happier life, better sleep, vibrant health,…
I first learned of the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi many years ago. It is a tool for contemplation, or a philosophy of life, that finds beauty in things that are impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete. In other words, it’s the notion that patina; wear and tear; chips, cracks, and fissures; assymetry; flaws; and defects actually…