LifeThanks, 5x5

Five Friends I’m Thankful For

1. That one I don’t see often enough.
2. That one who’s always there when I need a friend.
3. That one who lets me help when a friend is needed.

TextMe

If you’ve seen the recent “Einstein” meme that’s been going around, you’ve noticed all the pictures of people texting like mad in groups. If you haven’t seen it, don’t worry — I’m going to be talking about it in about a week, since it falls better in a “Life” post than here.

The Pursuit

As I gingerly test my footing here outside the rat race — where the highlight of my day is watching my grandson’s face as I let him unlock the car with the remote, and slow coffee and thinking and reading and meditating are on my to-do list, with the longest travel being across town to the café where my…

Seven Driving Practice Tips

I’ve been waxing metaphysical lately, so I thought I’d go for the “practical tips” idea in today’s practice post. Having just gotten done with a 45-hour drive from Seattle, WA to Madison, WI, I can give a few suggestions for these kinds of long, marathon drives. By “marathon”, by…

Meditomation

[Regarding meditation] …would love to hear/read your thoughts on it, particularly on the conflict(?) between the goal of acceptance and using meditation as a productivity tool (ie — if you’re using meditation as a means to focus and acceptance, then how do you move forward?) — Karl, in the comments

Factoring Ex

There’s this dumb thing I do, once in a while.

I blame social media, because it didn’t used to be possible. When you broke up with someone, they talked to their friends about it when you weren’t around; you could avoid the places that they might appear; you didn’t have access to…

No Love Lost

Today is a sad day.

Today is a happy day.

Today I said goodbye to some people I love.

Today I’m traveling towards reuniting with people I love.

Life Reflected

Something interesting I noticed while in the midst of the decision-making I was talking about in the last post.

I’m not stupid; or, rather, I am sometimes quite stupid, and so I didn’t hesitate to ask friends who I know and trust for advice. The feedback I got was interesting.

Fear of Know-Fear

I have a friend who suffers from deprimophobia. For those who don’t know*, that translates to “fear of ironing.” The interesting thing is that, unlike my completely rational arachnophobia, her fear is not of the mechanisms of ironing itself. She handles laundry like a pro, hangers are no problem…

The Blacklist of Love

Unlike classical Indian literature (such as the Ramayana) Western stories of love tend to be all-or-nothing. In fact, I’ve said it myself in the openings of Open Space conventions:

If you have to think to hard about what you’re passionate about, maybe you’re not…