People who are rich in what matters usually have a spiritual side. I do. It’s a sense, joyful or at least satisfying, of being connected to something greater than ourselves. Taken a step further, this connectedness doesn't end with the death of our physical bodies. It's lodged in our souls, our consciousness that doesn't just survive after physical ...
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 ...
Passion, Lost And Found
Passion is a key way of being rich in what matters. When we're passionate, we're connected to our life's purpose. We're on track. Most likely, we're contributing. Do you ever get separated from your passion? I do. I've been passionate for seven years and 626 posts about writing this blog. But I've been discouraged about readership for some ...
Ten Ways To Stay Warm During Arctic Fronts
Streets icy as skating rinks and other Arctic front symptoms have gripped my hometown and much of the country today. How are you staying warm? How much are you spending to do it? How much is the earth spending to do it? I had considered posting today on the historic, heartening climate change agreement between the U.S. and China to reduce emissions. But, Bill McKibben of ...
Hurt. Heal. Repeat.
When we’re rich in what matters, we’re engaged with life. We’re leaning into it, we’re giving and receiving, we’re connected rather than isolated. Then, we have a loved one die, and we hurt like bloody hell. It’s a universal experience that none of us can escape. Or, a loved one rejects or abandons us. We stagger around, ...
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: ...
Handcuffs We Wear Without Knowing It
Being resilient is a key way to be rich in what matters. When we're resilient, we can adapt to a wide variety of situations and still be happy. We can flex our choices, our behaviors and the amount of resources that we use. Rigid comfort zones can confine us like handcuffs. When we have narrow, rigid comfort zones we are ...
13 Ways To Happily Live Outside The Box
The box is mainstream culture. It's easy to live inside of it most of the time, without even meaning to. The box tells us to buy lots, consume lots and to be afraid of lots of things in the world (the things we buy are good distractions from scary things). But when we're rich in what ...
