I like the quiet slow week that eases me from Christmas into New Year’s. I spent a day and a half in Sebastopol, one of my favorite places. It’s an environment conducive to slowing down—to the degree that I found myself doing things like setting my wallet on the bakery counter and then wandering away. [...]

In writing about how to sneak up on the first draft, I dropped in a mention of my inner doomsayer. (The context was that the inner doomsayer pays less attention to casual lists than to Official Drafts.) I was struck by the term even as I wrote it—not inner critic or inner editor, but Doomsayer! [...]

I spent part of last weekend at a workshop led by the wonderful Jane Pollak and Brad Isaacs. With my to-do list starting to feel overwhelming, the event was well-timed—I needed to step away and get perspective. Yes! There were shifts. (Having to do with gently meeting my demons rather than running scared from them.) [...]

Leo Babauta’s post on mindfulness and single-tasking got me thinking about the ways I multi-task. I’m not one of those rudesbies who talks on the phone while answering email, nooo. How I multi-task is by reading. While eating, and waiting. But reading is a good thing! Fuels the imagination, creates empathy, promotes critical thinking. And [...]

One of the differences that daily meditation has made in my life is that I’m more patient. Am I the soul of patience? Nope. But I’m more patient than I used to be. I don’t finish other people’s sentences as often. (I still do it, but not as often.) I interrupt people less. (Or, later [...]