A year ago today I naively booked a non-refundable flight to Albania for June 2020. It is a bit embarrassing that even with all the news about coronavirus by that point, I still had not realized what a big impact it would have on our lives in the year...

Happy New Year!  Whew, 2020 will forever be seared in our collective memories, huh?  A reminder of how much in life is out of our control. I spent much of this rainy first weekend of 2021 reading old journal entries from this month 20 years ago, 10 years, and...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe amidst this latest surge in COVID cases. I’m hunkered down here in San Francisco for the foreseeable future and have been discovering so many new ways to make the most of quarantine time. Meditation has become one...

I had been meaning to do a staycation for years but somehow I always ended up planning a trip instead. Since I’ve taken a hiatus from travel due to the pandemic, my vacation days at work have been piling up and I pretty much had no choice but to...

For the first five months of the pandemic, I was doing surprisingly well. I had a few concerned friends checking in on me since I live alone but amazingly I was thriving during quarantine. My heart aches for everyone who has faced illness, loss, financial hardship, or other challenges,...

Since discovering the FIRE movement a few years ago, I have been much more focused on the ‘Financial Independence’ part of the acronym and barely paid attention to the ‘Retire Early’ part. I am lucky to have a job that I love. I had a rather meandering series of...

Are you working on changing a habit? Perhaps exercise, or healthier eating, or reading more? I have found that mindfulness is incredibly helpful in starting a new habit or getting back on track if I start to lose momentum with something I’m working on. I thought I would share...

For some reason, I barely ate as a kid. I was born very small (only 4 pounds 6 ounces, even though I was born exactly on my due date). And then I just was not interested in eating until I was about 15. I have vague memories of being...

Most of us feel like there is just not enough time in the day or week for everything we want to do. Time is a funny thing. I had a particularly stark experience with this when I did a yoga teacher training many years ago. For three months, this...

During college, I spent a semester in London for a study-abroad program. I was lucky to have other friends studying in Paris so we reunited to celebrate Thanksgiving together. During dinner, we went around and each said what we were grateful for.  My friend who went last said she...