I recently became acquainted with a Dutch concept called Niksen. Niksen is the art of doing nothing. The idea is, well, to just sit there. No work, no distractions. No Facebook or journaling. No counting your breaths or repeating a…
The Secret to Inner Peace
Amazingly, 2017 marks 20 years of my life in New Hampshire. Why is this amazing? Because I don’t like cold winters. I don’t ski, snow shoe, ice skate, drive, or even walk when there is snow about – I simply…
Eat, Pray, Learn
I recently went on a personal adventure to Antigua, Guatemala. It was my own miniature version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Well, she traveled for an entire year (to Italy, India, and Bali) and I only went away for…
Gratitude Glasses
It happened on the heels of a wonderful weekend away. I had just spent four days and three nights on a spiritual retreat praying and meditating, contemplating the gifts of life. I was aglow with gratitude. And then, shortly after…
Are You A River or A Lake?
Life, like a river, can at times be rushing, wild, and swift. You can have days, years, even decades that resemble the high intensity energy of a river. Yet, life can also be like a lake — calm, spacious, and…
Doing Nothing
I’m taking a class on “Reflection” and our first homework assignment was to do nothing for 10 minutes a day; no reading, no music, no magazines or emails, no chanting, no singing, no meditation even! At first, I thought, Will…
This One Moment
With the rest of the world, I have watched the videos and news accounts of tragedy in Japan. As if the earthquake and tsunami weren’t enough, the nuclear reactor explosions and subsequent meltdown are creating an industrialized disaster of unprecedented…
Under the Sea
I just returned from the Bahamas with my daughter, Victoria. This was my third and final ‘Teen Trip’, 3 days and nights that I’ve taken with each of my children. Of all the pleasures of the cruise — staring out to…
Winter White
That white fluffy powder – it just keeps coming down in New England. We’ve had four school snow days in four weeks. I gaze at the accumulating inches outside my window . . . . and I think about how…
Snow Day
I gaze out my window and I see only snow . . . a wall of winter white . . . and the world shut down. Schools and airports are closed. Doctors and dentists have nothing but cancellations. Retailers hibernate.…