How To Survive The Holidays
I am using this month to regroup—are you? We are leaving behind the mania of Christmas and holiday buying: We have what we need. I’m focused on enjoying these days in which we say goodbye to 2013, on having both of our kids home, of navigating into a new, less complicated season in front of the fire.
N is for now
“Nothing is worth more than this day.” –Goethe In 2008, I am going to be here now. When you unpeel it, 37days is all about now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one day. I want, instead, to live …
Retreat to move forward
Sometimes we have to retreat to move forward. The next 37days retreat is scheduled for September 28-30, 2007, and registration has just opened for it. Limited to 14 people, I hope you can be one of them. I’ll be joined by my business partner, David Robinson, in facilitating the weekend …
Be still, or at the very most, swing slowly
“The near stillness recalls what is forgotten, extinct angels.” – Georg Trakl This week, the same message came to me from four places: on a table, while driving up Hillside Street, by a bonfire, and watching a tree swing trace its lazy arc. On the table She opened the door. …
Shave with Ockham’s razor
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." – Albert Einstein In the summer of 1996, I had a bout of terrible headaches—debilitating, numbing, paralyzing brain crushers. I was convinced they were symptoms of a brain tumor; John quietly suggested that it might be a vitamin deficiency. …
Wear solids
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci After the Parent/Teacher Organization meeting at my older daughter’s middle school a few weeks ago, I was instructed by my family to stop at Ingle’s Market for the following essentials: 1) dog food, 2) apple juice, 3) baby wipes, 4) Shonen …
Close the boardroom closet
“Never confuse movement with action.” – Ernest Hemingway I don’t remember ever being this busy. Not even that time in the fourth grade when I was starring as Johnny Appleseed in our class play, learning to play the autoharp, and simultaneously creating my report on Missouri, the “Show Me” state, …
Let go of your legal pad
“The best things in life are not things.” – C. & J. Woods On Sunday, August 28, 2005, as I cleaned Cheerios off the kitchen floor for the 59th time, and just after the contents of a 12.5 fluid ounce glass bottle of maple syrup were ceremoniously unleashed onto that …
Pop up your Nimrod
“There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says, Anywhere but here.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I grew up in a small Southern town where nobody knew …
