Just came from the final celebration of my 61st Jubilee. It was the winter-quarter birthday brunch of six buddies who have been celebrating our aging since most of us were in our twenties. One gift I received was particularly bold and imaginative: fresh eggs from Stephanie’s chickens. She keeps them in her mid-town backyard, as […] Read More

Last night Husband Bob and I went to see a live TV showing of Prairie Home Companion at a local movie theatre: a perfect celebration of Bob’s 68th birthday yesterday. It was sublimely good and completely heart-warming: a winning combo that Garrison Keillor produces weekly without fail. Here’s why I mention him again on a […] Read More

Recently I decided to sell some clothes on consignment. In the past I’ve taken my physically or emotionally outgrown items to the Goodwill. This new possibility felt to me a small enticing adventure. I grew up in the midst of the clothing business. My parents owned stores in Wilmington, NC. And I feel I know […] Read More

Still snowy here in the unaccustomed South, and we each have to make the decision about when it’s safe to drive. It varies, of course, with the vehicle and the address. To get from my house to a paved and cleared road, requires covering the long downhill curving driveway with woods on either side, followed […] Read More

We have the rare pleasure here of snow these last few days. It was two and a half days before I could get from our house on a hilly dirt road through woods to the main road. So I’ve had a cosy few days, with a little cross-country skiing, up until the bindings broke on […] Read More

This afternoon I heard for the first time about how a Japanese business management technique can be usefully adapted to making positive changes in one’s life. Like lightning, I rushed to Google this new word: kaizen. The basic idea, as explained in One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer, […] Read More

If you’re needing an inspiring role model, read the Wired Magazine career history of Avatar director James Cameron. What a combo of persistence, courage, and inventiveness! But to make that feel real and encouraging, I always need to know the details. Thirty-three years ago, he was a young truck driver who went to see Star […] Read More

Okay, it’s Monday at the office, time: 7:36 p.m. I haven’t had a self-defeating thought all day. Not one. Maybe it’s not just work that keeps them at bay. Maybe it’s concentration, a strong focus. But I can’t be this focused all the time. Obviously I need a leisure time strategy as well. Will ponder […] Read More

Turning through an old issue of Metropolis magazine — “Architecture*Culture*Design– last night, I came across an interview with a wise furniture designer, Bertjan Pot. He said this: “I think the best thing you can give to the world is the thing you do best. And if that is making pretty tables, then let it be […] Read More

It’s the first weekend since I’ve been writing down self-defeating thoughts–as a way to get rid of them. This process of “therapeutic homework” continues to be an education. Obviously, I don’t have a big enough sample to claim I’ve discovered a pattern. But I do notice that I’ve written down many more of them today […] Read More