Save a grocery list
“The palest ink is better than the sharpest memory.” Chinese proverb This luggage tag is what I have left of the ways in which my father’s hands moved and how he grasped his pen, always that blue plastic one with “Modern Barber Shop” on one side and his name on …
Fund your own revolution
“The American Revolution was not financed with matching grants from the Crown.” – David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear Quick. Look around your office or workspace. Do you have a clock there? Do you have a visitor chair—a chair where a visitor could sit, should one suddenly appear …
Just take it bird by bird
"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." – Ralph Waldo Emerson In the past few years, I’m proud to report that I have written several quite successful books under my pen name, Anne Lamott. Okay, I …
Replace “they” with “we” with “I”
We all believe in equality, as long as it is equality with our superiors. What is the tipping point? I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that our Social Contract works—that people stop at four-way stop signs and allow the person to their right to move first, creating a sweet …
Consider yourself part of the solution
“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” – Flora Edwards Do something. Extend yourself. This is no way to say goodbye to someone who has been your cornerstone, your love, your driving force, your partner, your …
Follow the chili peppers
“how like the bumble bee I am in my work or my life i see where i want to go and in my panic i forget to look for the open window” -Marybeth Fidler This week, I had an extraordinary experience with chili peppers, mints, a smoking cook, and big …
Don’t sell your red books
“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.” – Carol Pearson Years ago when my husband John had his fantastic odd little bookshop full of antique science books in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a local Decorator to the Stars of U.S. Government came …
Examine your car for dents
“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” –Tuli Kupferberg One interesting thing about life is that at a certain point, it all starts repeating. Or perhaps it’s been repeating all along and it just takes a certain distance (age?) to begin seeing the patterns that emerge, again and again. And …
Follow the disturbance
“Put down your clever,Let your partner affect you:Tenets of Improv” — review of Keith Johnstone’s Impro on HaikuBookReviews I recently had an interesting experience that revealed to me a big truth, a Big Truth, that is, in capital letters. It was an encounter with a client. My business partner, David, and …
Say WOW when you see a bus
“As once the wingéd energy of delight / carried you over childhood’s dark abysses, now beyond your own life build the great arch / of unimagined bridges.” –Rainer Maria Rilke There is a pure and shining glory in the world of my 2-year-old daughter, Tess. It is called a bus, …
