Mainstream culture encourages a tight focus on self. That focus can feed separation from others, and isolation. Both those are tied to depression, very common in the U.S., especially during the holidays. But hospitality -- both the giving and receiving of it -- is a potent antidote to isolation and depression. It makes us rich in what ...
What Shall We Pledge Allegiance To?
Normally at this time of year I write about celebrating the holidays in ways that make us rich in what matters. You may be familiar. Best low-cost and no-cost holiday gifts. How to break the rules at Christmas. Christmas as community, not stuff. But today -- this week -- something is looming larger than the holidays, for ...
Halloween, Elections, And The Power of Choice
Halloween and the elections aren't just a few days apart. They're both things in which we have free choice. But we tend to forget we have the power of choice. It is always easiest to make default choices, and follow the crowd. Default choices are the mainstream choices of consumerism and disengagement. The mainstream/default choice with Halloween is the consumerism choice. It's handing out candy ...
The Hero’s Journey, or, Seven Ways To Live Like A Salmon
Salmon swim upstream, 700 miles and more, to return to their birthplace. It's a hero's journey. Being rich in what matters, like integrity, relationships, health and spirituality -- in a culture obsessed with money and stuff -- is like being a salmon. Salmon make a hero's journey. They swim upriver 700 perilous miles and more to ...
Top Six Reasons To BOLT To Freedom
Mainstream culture tells us to travel everywhere by car, one or maybe two people per car. This choice makes sense at times. But in general it just makes me yawn. Boring. Costly to people and planet. Confining. Unproductive. I’m writing this on the BOLT bus as Thor and I start a short vacation to Victoria, Canada. (Note: ...
How to Find And Keep Your Own Personal Sherpa
I will need to keep my personal Sherpa as happy as these fine fellows appear to be. I've decided I need and want my own personal Sherpa. I know it is politically incorrect for me to say that, but today I am feeling self-centered. Radio talk show hosts have a lot of fun by making the world ...
How To Get Through The Death of a Loved One
Being rich in what matters involves dealing with the deaths of loved ones in the best way we can. My friend Liz lost her 91 year old mother to death this past week. That moved me to write today’s post, based partly on how I weathered the death of my own mother three years ago, and ...
The Smoking Gun Of Passion
Where in your life are you the most frustrated? What in you yearns for change, or growth, or even transformation? Frustration is a smoking gun for passion. Our job is to follow the smoke and identify its source within us. Prior to last month, I had been as frustrated as a child with ants in my pants ...
The Best Thing We Can Each Build
Since starting out in 2007, Diamond-Cut Life has periodically honed and chiseled its focus. I feel like a jeweler, happily crafting ideas into posts here in my living room, like rough geodes into jewels. Last year, I recrafted my blog's subtitle from "more joy, less stuff" to "how to be rich in what matters." In 2014, I've realized that my "who" needs sharper focus, ...
Top Ten Tips For Visiting Costa Rica
My Costa Rican chain gang in Santa Elena. I'm in the middle, white shirt. Traveling is a prime way to be rich in what matters. I just returned from eight days in Costa Rica, tired and happy from my first volunteer vacation. Travel can be such a thrill, such a rush, that many blogs are only about ...
