Yesterday, Sage took to Facebook and mentioned that the charity was now grabbing some of our personal savings to stay afloat. I am a very private person, so this felt like he’d hung our underwear on the outside laundry line. And no, he didn’t check in with me before that post went out. Ehem. I… Continue reading Family First Values | AKA: Why Giving To Homeless Feels Wrong
Category: Reflections
Life Coaching is Weird
People who do what I do for a living (write, research & have theories about self improvement) brand themselves as Life Coaches. It’s just this thing you’re supposed to do. It sells books and lends credibility to your blog, I suppose. But there’s something about life coaching as a profession that makes me want to… Continue reading Life Coaching is Weird
Grief at The Holidays
I miss my Mother in Law. I think we all miss our dead loves ones at the holidays because, in busy modern times, holidays are some of our few remaining traditions. And traditions honor the dead because their place was marked and their place is missing. She brought the cranberries and rolls, she sat across… Continue reading Grief at The Holidays
My Son Watches Lots of Media. Here’s Why.
I believe that too much “media,” as my son’s Waldorf School calls it, is a bad idea. Studies show it. It makes my kid somewhat restless afterwards and he should be doing other things. No doubt. During the school year, this is not an issue. We have school, homework, extracurriculars and play dates. ENTER SUMMER.… Continue reading My Son Watches Lots of Media. Here’s Why.
Pay Your Kids for Chores
It’s a common debate now-a-days. Do kids get cash for chores or are they unpaid family responsibilities? Ron Lieber, the New York Times’ “Your Money” columnist and author of the new book The Opposite Of Spoiled, says don’t pay your kids for chores. One reason? “According to Lieber’s philosophy, kids should look at chores just like… Continue reading Pay Your Kids for Chores
Learning to Tolerate Anxiety
I have long tapped into what this Business article says is, “the benefit of anxiety.” I do as they recommend and “use it as motivation to get prepared and push yourself to perform well.” To this I say, Yuck. We’d all be better off shunning this productivity validates your existence paradigm. I take meds for anxiety,… Continue reading Learning to Tolerate Anxiety
What Should I Be When I Grow Up?
Yeah, so my first world problems include this incredible fear of missing out of all my different potential selves and lives. Explained beautifully here at one of my all-time favorite blogs, Brain Pickings. “Our lived lives might become a protracted mourning for, or an endless tantrum about, the lives we were unable to live. But the exemptions… Continue reading What Should I Be When I Grow Up?
The Truth about Money and Happiness
“Money Can’t Buy Happiness,” say folks mostly from the middle class. Rich and poor people know it grants tons of happiness and scientists also know it does… to a point. The point is about $75,000.00. I see money buy me happiness nearly every day. I buy artichokes and basmati rice and salmon. When my son… Continue reading The Truth about Money and Happiness
Your Unknown Value
What you do today matters in ways you could not possibly know. I believe The Gaia Principle (think butterfly wings affecting weather across the globe) applies to human social interactions. Each smile you give today, or angry word you mumble, is influencing not only your life but the lives of those to whom you give little… Continue reading Your Unknown Value
People Over 40 Don’t Do Resolutions
I am hard pressed to find anyone over age forty that makes New Year’s Resolutions. Or if we do, we mutter them quietly to ourselves in the shower on January first. I confirmed this suspicion recently at a NYE party with folks over 40 by asking if they did resolutions and getting repeated vague grumblings… Continue reading People Over 40 Don’t Do Resolutions