Archives for Trying New Things
Where the Spirit Leads, Feet Follow: Walk, Baby, Walk
While extreme sports fuel many, the rest of us are not, nor do we aspire, to be in the club. For a lot of different reasons, we don’t want to go “peak bagging.” We’re not fit enough, strong enough or brave enough. Still we’d like to “live bold” and “dare to do more.” The urge […]
The New York Times’ Trip Contest: My Mother Could Be the Lucky Winner
What do people usually want to do on sabbatical? Learn something, travel, and give back are the top answers we hear. Pulitzer-winning journalist Nick Kristof of The New York Times is offering all three in his Win-a-Trip 2011 contest. He’ll take a college student and a senior citizen along with him to a developing country […]
Thanksgiving Leftovers: Grateful People are Happier and Healthier
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that the more grateful I am, the more energy, optimism, social connections and happiness I will experience. I know this to be true, but sometimes I “fall out of” gratitude. Two years ago, I started - and subsequently stopped - a gratitude journal. Each day, I noted the things […]
A 30-day Walking Sabbatical: Talking With a Pilgrim of the Camino de Santiago
It’s one thing to go for an afternoon walk or hike for a couple of weeks. It’s quite a different experience to sleep in a different bed every night, eat alone or with strangers and put one sore foot in front of the other day after day after day. Sometimes you are alone on the trail; […]
Is Your Brain Wired to the Office? Here’s a Sure Fire Way to Disconnect.
Yesterday, I tested out one of the recommendations on how to detach from the office suggested in the Wall Street Journal article, Why Relaxing is Hard Work, June 15, 2020. “Try something new,” was the first suggestion for how to make sure your time away from the office is truly time detached from work. Try something new. Learning something […]
Want Answers and Solutions? First, Live the Questions.
“It got too much water but it’s gonna be all right, Miss Barbara,” says Roth, my landscaper, smiling while his shaven head glistens in the July sun. “Just be patient.” Patient, my petunias. I’d throw one of those Bluestones he’s unloading in his direction if it weren’t so heavy. One half of the new sod placed in […]
Living the Width of Your Life: How’ya Doing on That?
No matter that I’m in the midst of a frantic pace of checking off a long to-do list of work items before I start to pack. A precise collection of words can make me pause. This one did. “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just […]
After 29 Years of Marriage, My Singular Advice for Wedded Bliss - Solo Sabbaticals
Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 29th anniversary. It makes us both laugh wildly to think we’ve been together this long. We could never have imagined it. While the Atlanta rental properties we bought together, the time-share we agonized over, and my moving into his bachelor house after we married proved to be terrible choices, […]