Are the gifts we're giving sustaining us, or depleting us? Merry Christmas! -- if you celebrate Christmas. Whether or not you do, keep reading, because this post is for you. We humans have craved winter holidays (like Christmas) ever since we figured out how to make fire. They're about surviving the long darkness. What sustains us in the cold, ...
Secret For A Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! At their best, holidays bathe us in connectedness, making us rich in what matters. Or, during the holidays we can bolt from being present in a hundred ways. And we don't even know we're doing it. Bolting is about fleeing discomfort. Bolting makes us less connected. It makes us poorer in what matters. In many cases it involves eating, drinking or spending too ...
Happy Fourth! Getting Past Independence-Worship
Happy Fourth of July! Those of us in the U.S. have a three-day weekend coming up -- how shall we celebrate our nation's birthday? Ideas below, but first a couple of thoughts on independence. Why not celebrate the interdependence of all nations on the Fourth? Given that the U.S. is now 238 years old, I think we are ...
Best Low-Cost And No-Cost Christmas Gifts
Giving and receiving gifts can be juicy and joyful, and make us lots richer in what matters. I think the best gift-giving keeps us living within our means and grounded in our values. Climate change is driven by overconsumption, and research indicates that more stuff doesn't even increase our happiness. But more and better relationships do. A cool ...
The Art Of Subtraction In The Holiday Season
An evergreen wreath on our door is my home's only holiday decoration. Our Christmas focus is on people, especially our annual open house . Mainstream culture tells us that more is better. During the holiday season, our culture screams this at us. But unless we are poor, it's a lie that more is better. It's actually a violent lie. More ...
Top Ten Tips For Hosting People
Our relationships with others are central to our happiness, much more central than wealth or possessions. A large body of research has proven this (see this post on the peak of happiness in the U.S.), and it is foundational to the diamond-cut life I've been chasing and writing about since 2007. My husband and I ...
How To Follow Through On New Year’s Resolutions
This is an updated version of my popular 2009 post. When I Googled the title of this post just now, my 2009 edition came up seventh. It was right before Dr. Oz’s piece in People magazine. I’m going to fantasize that this means Diamond-Cut Life is winning its soft-spoken war against mindless mainstream culture :) I’m ...
How Readers Break The Rules At Christmas
Diamond-Cut Life is about more joy and less stuff. It's written by a mostly joyful person (me) who feeds her happiness by putting people, nature and God ahead of buying more stuff. That's a fairly subversive thing to do and promote these days. It breaks the culture's unspoken rules that we've got to consume a ...
How To Break The Rules At Christmas
The holidays are full of traditions and rules, some spoken and some unspoken. But change, which we might call rule-breaking, is always an option. While we don't all celebrate Christmas, most people in the world celebrate some kind of winter holiday (the word holiday was originally holy day). I celebrate Christmas because I'm a liberal Christian, but (more…)
How To Not Gain Weight Over The Holidays
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm a big fan of festive feasts and sociable holidays -- my husband and I are hosting dinner today -- just, without overkill and regrets in the morning. Today's post is an updated version of my 2009 piece titled "Top Ten Tips For Not Gaining Weight Over The Holidays". And about tomorrow -- please consider joining ...
