Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
Pretend we were all alive together 300 years ago, or 300,000 years ago. What would we do for fun, in the absence of internet, movies, television, and everything else made possible by cheap fossil fuels? I think we’d do what my friends did with me last night to celebrate my birthday: entertain each other without [...]
Tags: birthdays·Colleen Kaleda·dancing·fun·haiku·Jean Baumann·labor of love·party·risotto·singing·vegetarian
I’m writing from Chicago, where the BlogHer conference I’m attending will start tomorrow. My run on the lakeshore last night took me to Millenium Park, where I had another of my little ecstatic, falling-in-love experiences, between the gardens, the symphony orchestra playing in the outdoor pavilion, and most of all, the unique fountain and wading [...]
Tags: Bill McKibben·BlogHer conference·carbon footprint·Chicago·chickens·climate change·culture·Deep Economy·Detroit·fun·global warming·happiness·Millenium Park·papalars·urban farming
If less is often more, then haiku is one of my favorite ways to practice that happy discipline. I wrote these yesterday afternoon while camping on the Fourth of July. Fourth of July at Moss Creek Campground Fireworks, begone. The piney air penetrates My limbic brain-stem. Intoxicated On The Fourth Tipsy on pine air I [...]
Tags: Camping·Fourth of July·fun·happiness·independence·Little White Salmon·Michael@NW Lens·Moss Creek·Oregon·outdoors
Staycations in lieu of travel vacations let us have fun while living within our means and not racking up any credit card debt. Plane trips, especially for whole families, quickly run into thousands of dollars, not to mention the way restaurant meals cost double to ten times what you’d spend cooking at home. Plus, any [...]
Tags: carbon footprint·email·family·fun·green living·happiness·ktylerconk·long-distance relationships·phone conversations·relationships·staycations·thrift
My sidekick Hanmi Meyer and I are pleased to be posting this morning our new page Resources For Good Living. It’s a set of links, well-labeled and organized, to cool sites that help us increase our happiness and lower our consumption. While this opening date is a bit behind schedule (the summer solstice had been [...]
Tags: bicycling·carbon footprint·consumption·contest·energy conservation·family·fun·gift certificates·green living·happiness·life·links·Oregon·outdoors·religion·renewable energy·resources·thrift·water
Yesterday afternoon I alit at the Amtrak station here in Portland, heavily laden with my laptop, book-bag and purse. It would be quite a trudge to where I needed to go. What should conveniently appear at the curb but a pedicab, pedaled by a lovely young woman named Margaret? Margaret, who leases her pedicab from [...]
Tags: bicycling·carbon footprint·cars·Cascadia Pedicab·fun·green living·happiness·Oregon·outdoors·pedicab·technology
1.) Ads. Don’t want ‘em. I’m jonesing for readership, not dollars. 2.) Hatchet jobs on anyone or anything. I’m here to be constructive, not tear things down. I’ve angered some people with some measured criticism, but at the same time I’ve suggested a positive path they might consider taking. I’ve even rewarded someone who took [...]
Tags: ads·cars·consumption·fun·green living·happiness·life·rich and famous·technology·thrift·water
What did I do last night and how happy did it make me? I went running in the high desert, sang and got people to sing with me — for a 9 on my 1-10 scale of happiness. I’m in Bend, Oregon, for a conference on public participation. To the right is the type of [...]
Tags: American Pie·Bend·exercise·fun·happiness·high desert·Janet Johnson·Oregon·outdoors·public participation·running·thrift
The economy has many of us scared and tense, whether or not we still have the job and homes we had a year or two ago. Thor and I are lucky that our jobs and house situation are yet unchanged, but of course we’ve lost a big portion of what we’d put away for retirement, [...]
Tags: fun·green living
A high-joy, low-consumption pursuit that my friend Colleen Kaleda, a journalist, and I love to do together is write haiku. Her first poem reflects that she and her husband merrily ousted some pavement from their property last summer. Contact speaks to our shared love of community and sociability. Which reminds me: this Thursday Colleen and [...]
Tags: Colleen Kaleda·fun·haiku
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