To travel means, ultimately, nothing more than coming back home a different person from the one who left.            Pico Iyer I grew up on a cul-de-sac (see above), defined as a blind alley closed at one end.  As a street design when I was a kid, it was glorious.  As...Read More

“Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” Mandy Hall, Master Chef One year ago, a beloved family member faced a pivotal moment in his life when a routine check-up with his physician revealed the early signs of fatty liver disease, a consequence of his fast food diet. ...Read More

It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old.   Jules Renard Fluid Intelligence is raw intelligence- the ability to solve novel, abstract problems.  It increases through our 30s then begins a precipitous decline in our 40s.  This explains why younger people are more innovative and populate startups and new music genres. Most readers...Read More

Right now, the growth edge I’m working on is learning to become less reactive to everything: unplanned events, weather, traffic, difficult people, politics, taxes, insects, all of it. I just returned from hosting a Wellness Week at Playa Avellana, Costa Rica, where I spent hours watching surfers in the Pacific. Their agility astonished me ‑they...Read More

….what else matters besides being kind to ourselves and kind to others? As we mourn the violent murder of George Floyd and so many other innocent people of color, amidst a pandemic that is hitting black and brown communities hardest, we descend into an economic depression. Rage naturally erupts from these wretched injustices and lack...Read More

The enormity of this global moment hits when we learn that in Jerusalem, the church of the Holy Sepulchre (above) had to close its doors due to a pandemic for the second time ever this week.  The first time it was locked for this reason – using the same key – was in 1349, during...Read More

Our Life is What our Thoughts Make It Marcus Aurelius, 121AD- 180AD   I recently began practicing stoicism—not to become an emotionless person, but to minimize negative emotions.  Its antifragile or toughness-training.  Even though the Stoics wrote their philosophy over 2,000 years ago–their wisdom is so relevant to our modern life.  Who among us does...Read More

He who sows hurry reaps indigestion. Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish philosopher 1850-1894 An interesting study at the Princeton Theological Seminary tells a troubling story about how well-intentioned humans can behave when we are in a rush. The students were given a lecture on the parable of The Good Samaritan, and then were told they had...Read More

When I was growing up, I was one of six kids and my father owned a toy store in Hackensack, New Jersey. What I learned as a teenager, was that his leftover inventory became our Christmas presents. While I slept, the delivery truck from his store would back up the driveway late Christmas Eve. What...Read More

“We don’t absorb the energy of others, we match it.    Wayne Dyer   I’ve written about emotional vampires before: those people around us that are victims, know-it-alls, or complainers. Lately, my thinking on how to best deal with these people has evolved. If we feel drained after interacting with one of these types, it’s...Read More