I was looking at a picture of bamboo. I love bamboo. I have spent so many hours painting it. In my sumi-e practice, I have painted a million bamboo plants. In the beginning, I thought this was insane repetition. In Western schools you don’t sit and write the letter “e” a million times. Maybe that’s why I…
Be a Simple Man
I was running the other day—disobeying myself since I’m taking a short hiatus from running, but I promised myself “just a quick mile.” Of course it’s never quick or a mile. Somewhere around mile five a song kicked in. Not even sure how it made my playlist, because it’s certainly not a running song. But every time I…
Good Yogi, Bad Yogi
I’m tying myself in knots again. It’s fun. After my yoga retreat, I tried to practice yoga daily, then lost focus–I forgot the moves. So, I started watching yoga videos. I started with Claudia’s video. Claudia gives such good instructions for beginners, and if anyone asks who my yoga instructor is, I will say “Claudia Altucher” because I really only took…
I Survived Storm Nemo, the Great Snowpocalypse
I lived in upstate New York through the ice storm of 1993. It reminded me of Narnia–probably, to this day, the most striking thing I have ever seen. It was stunning. Crystal ice encasing trees, bowing their branches in genuflection toward nature, refracting a million tiny rainbows as the sun hit–gems and diamonds of ice…sparkling whiteness shining…
A Micron in the Universe Can Change the World
It’s 4AM. The middle of the night for some, and I have just been presented with a question about the vastness of the universe for further consideration. These are the moments when dialogue sparks up in the stillness of the night when no five-year old intuitively knows that I’m about to have a deep thought so he…
Musashi meets the Catcher: Strategy Lesson One
I am a terrible athlete. I studied martial arts for years–I worked and worked to memorize kata and I did a stint in tournaments. I was bored. You can only break stuff and do choreographed routines for so long. I was bored in martial arts, but also bored in life. Sometimes, at just the right time, just…
Filling the Empty Space in my Bookshelf…Visionaries Wanted
I have a special shelf dedicated to books written by important people in my life. Some were written by mentors, like Dr. Stan Lemons’ collection and Dr. Brenda Meehan Waters, both among of the best of academics, and others by close friends. They have all impacted me. One of Dr. Lemon’s books afforded me the opportunity to…
Why I Will Turn Myself into a Human Pretzel
I’m going on a yoga retreat. First off I don’t “do yoga.” At first, I declined–this isn’t just yoga, it’s a weekend of yoga–a weekend of quietly turning my energies inward, getting rid of the clutter in my brain, and getting in touch with myself. Or at least getting my leg in touch with the backside of…
Four Seasons of Frugal: Why I’m Grateful to the Great Recession
It all began with blips on the financial radar in 2006. I was pregnant with Declan–the hero of some of these stories. The universe was about to come crashing down. I felt it. I wasn’t sure what was about to happen only that something was wrong in the universe. Our business was struggling. I researched taking a…
Simplicity: The Intersection of Frugal and Cheap
I found my canvas bags. In my move, I’d lost them and I’d been forced to use plastic. I’d committed a great many enviro-crimes in moving from House A to House B, the least of which was forgetting my bags. I confessed this to my green friend. I expected to hear “You can do better,” but I…