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My search for an acre of escape “Granite erratic, Dudmaston” by Richard Webb is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse&atype=rich It was the rock that caught my eye. Dappled with lichen and lighted by the afternoon sun, it appeared to be the perfect place for contemplation. A spot where you could sit and write your novel, ponder your place in the universe, and perhaps reach some kind of equilibrium with ...

Advice from people who achieved some pretty remarkable goalsPhoto by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Time is kinda fake, but the new year nevertheless feels like a clean slate, a moment where you have the opportunity to shed old sins and reinvent yourself anew. For many, this translates to buying a gym membership and vowing to lose 15 pounds. So by March, when you…

I would like to dismiss 2021 as a terrible, no-good, very bad year, a year to be sept away and forgotten as quickly as possible. After all, it was a year that began with the insurrection and was quickly followed by my ALS diagnosis. Dire on both the public and private fronts. Such a year can’t possibly have been anything other than bad. And yet — it was also the year that I not only had a new book published, I also sold two new books (on the same day!) to come out in 2022. More importantly, i...

I didn’t send any cards in 2020. A lot of people didn’t — I suppose no one felt like writing Christmas letters or picking a photo from that sad year. We did do a few small things. My main effort was to make a wreath; we didn’t have any pines at the old farmhouse property, so we wandered a nearby state forest to cut some inconspicuous branches. I tied them to a wreath form, wrapped it with a velvet bow, and put it on our front door. We didn’t do gifts for each other, and only bought a few for ...

It’s time to think about how they really impact on people https://justinel999.medium.com/?source=post_page-----7d0ed68e4926----------------------------------- Justine L https://index.medium.com/oh-please-can-2022-be-the-year-we-have-less-meetings-7d0ed68e4926?source=post_page-----7d0ed68e4926----------------------------------- Dec 15, 2021·4 min readPhoto: Chris Montgomery/Unsplash I’m pretty sure that I’ve attended more meetings in the last twenty months than in the thirty or so years of my ...

Maybe you’ll want to read them too, but it’s OK if you don’t. https://evepeyser.medium.com/?source=post_page-----88ec444b6835----------------------------------- Eve Peyser https://evepeyser.medium.com/the-best-books-i-read-in-2021-are-all-about-weirdos-88ec444b6835?source=post_page-----88ec444b6835----------------------------------- Dec 10, 2021·6 min readI might be a professional writer or whatever, but for many years, I have felt deep shame over the fact that I don’t read enough books. It’s...

A note to myself from the side of the highway https://kategreentripp.medium.com/?source=post_page-----3a340c067550----------------------------------- Kate Green Tripp https://forge.medium.com/when-life-is-slow-go-even-slower-3a340c067550?source=post_page-----3a340c067550----------------------------------- Dec 13, 2021·3 min readPhoto: Artur Łuczka / Unsplash Last week, my car needed service. I typically manage such days of privileged inconvenience by dropping my car at the dealer and grabbing...

https://philosophyasawayoflife.medium.com/?source=post_page-----3419f18bb86f----------------------------------- Philosophy as a Way of Life https://philosophyasawayoflife.medium.com/what-philosophers-think-2020-edition-3419f18bb86f?source=post_page-----3419f18bb86f----------------------------------- Dec 16, 2021·9 min read[image: the “Thinker” by Rodin outside Philadelphia’s Rodin Museum, Wikimedia; this is essay #351 in the Philosophy as a Way of Life series] Philosophy, contra popular opini...

Finding joy in sharing traditional meals with my loved ones. Story by Bella Coronado Esperanza Coronado didn’t cook because she had to, or because it was a hobby; cooking was her love language, how she communicated joy. On the rare occasion when my Abuela’s four sons, three daughter-in-laws and 12 grandchildren gathered together, we came around her food. She valued the way food brings people together, because it brought warmth that could be felt in every room; it was felt through conversation...

It’s an incredible example of careful processing of a dearly loved but also toxic former workplace https://sarahstankorb.medium.com/?source=post_page-----532e515e16b4----------------------------------- Sarah Stankorb https://gen.medium.com/in-drama-queens-podcast-one-tree-hill-stars-rehash-the-making-of-the-show-the-good-bad-and-532e515e16b4?source=post_page-----532e515e16b4----------------------------------- Dec 16, 2021·6 min readPhoto courtesy of Drama Queens I’m of an age that for me, fir...

SPIRIT MEDICINEEssential prep for the beginning and end of the new year https://medium.com/@amberthealchemist?source=post_page-----e55199ddf7b4----------------------------------- Amber the Alchemist https://zora.medium.com/how-to-ground-your-mind-body-spirit-and-emotions-e55199ddf7b4?source=post_page-----e55199ddf7b4----------------------------------- Dec 17, 2021·8 min readSome folks use notebooks to review the old year and plan for the new year. Do you? Image: Getty You don’t need a crystal...

In my 16-year career as a high school teacher, I have been through more lockdowns than I can count Image by Ulrike Mai from Pixabay There’s a bucket in my classroom. It’s bright yellow plastic with a sturdy black lid. It’s large. It looks like any one of the industrial sorts of buckets you might find in the aisles of Home Depot or in the dusty disarray of a construction site. It lives under my desk, just between a box of printer paper and a crate of student portfolios, and it has been there s...