Before we zoom over Thanksgiving on our way to Christmas/New Years/Spring Break/Next Summer, I would like to pause to consider the most basic and greatest of gratitudes: that we have the privilege of being here at all. Bronnie Ware was a palliative care nurse for many years and wrote a short essay which became a…
Life is Curly
“To everything there is a season…a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance … ” ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 King Solomon, who purportedly penned the words quoted above, was a wise person; he was also a real…
Follow Your Bliss
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” …
A Thinking Problem
I have a thinking problem. They say that admitting that you have a problem is half the battle, but I’m not so sure. I’m in pretty deep. I’m not talking about normal, what’s-for-dinner sort of thinking, although I have plenty of that. I’m talking about furrowed brow cogitating, bordering on the obsessive-compulsive — the kind…
Finding Trust
In the Disney Pixar movie Finding Nemo, there is a scene in which Marlin (an anxiety-ridden clown fish) and his friend Dory are hanging off the back of a whale’s tongue. (If you haven’t seen the movie you (a) are not a parent of young children and (b) are just going to have to trust…
Ego vs. Soul: A Balancing Act
I’M A HAPPY MOLE Yesterday, on NPR’s Fresh Air , I heard I great exchange between two characters from the show “Enlightened.” Laura Dern plays a woman who wants to blow the whistle on her employer’s nefarious activities. She’s trying to enlist the help of her reluctant co-worker. DERN: (As Amy) Don’t you feel an obligation?…
Ten Keys to Happiness
“The pursuit of happiness” is an odd phrase in our Declaration of Independence. Like Justice Scalia, I imagine that I know what the founders meant by it, but it seems to me that the concept of “pursuing” happiness is wrong-headed. First of all, happiness is not tangible: it can’t be bought and it can’t be…
How to Have a Truly Happy Holiday
The season of celebration is upon us; lots of Happy Hanukkahs, Merry Christmases and Happy New Years flying about. It sets me to wondering about this happiness business, and it IS a business, as I am sure you very well know. Equally obvious is the fact that all the stuff being foisted upon us at…
