In my eighth grade English class, when we had finished our daily assignment, we were allowed to read until the bell rang. To facilitate this bonus learning opportunity, our teacher kept a small display of paperback books at the back …
The silly reasons why people stop meditating
A couple of months ago I wrote about why I chose Transcendental Meditation (TM) to become more self-aware and to jump-start my spiritual growth. That article was shared quite a bit on social media and still gets lots of traffic …
The healing power of road trips
In On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s classic American beat novel, Dean Moriarty looks out over the chaotic buzz of Chicago’s nightlife and tells his adventurous friend Sal Paradise that it’s time to go. Where? They won’t know till they get …
10 Rumi quotes: Ancient wisdom for today’s happiness
Who is the best-selling poet in the United States? His name is Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian mystic and Sufi master, whose poems have sold millions of copies around the world. Even if you’re not a poetry fan, you’ve …
5 things I let go of that doubled my happiness
When my oldest daughter was three, I took her shopping with me one day. Our grocery store offers free balloons to kids, which is brilliant, because anything that can keep your preschooler smiling for 15 minutes while you replenish milk …
Can meditation save the world?
“What you think, you become.” — The Buddha “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7 “He who knows his own self, knows God.” – Prophet Mohammed Perhaps the one thing all the world’s great religions have …
Some unsolicited advice for my tween daughters (before things get totally crazy)
Dear girls: Things are about to get messy. You’re only 8 and 10 years old right now, but life moves mighty fast, trust me. You’ll be teenagers in no time, and when that happens, our lives will get a lot …
What a flock of starlings can teach us about human progress
I’ve recently been binge-watching CNN’s excellent docuseries that chronicles recent American history in decade-long chunks. I finished The Sixties and The Seventies and am finally ready for The Eighties. I’m excited and a little embarrassed to relive the decade during …
7 spiritual lessons from graphic design
My graphic design career began in the late 80’s when design tastes were very…well, graphic. Fascinated with computers, digital images and advertising, I would spend hours laying out newsletters and direct mail postcards using WordPerfect and a borrowed IBM PC. …
Stop saying “everything happens for a reason” when someone is hurting
In today’s social media world, cheap advice is not just cheap, it’s free. Every time you open Facebook, there’s another inspiring quote pasted on top of a beautiful sunset or a new article outlining three simple ways to achieve total …