Confession: I am still in my LL Bean flannel pajamas in front of a roaring fire. It is well past morning. I am thinking about a concept called "idleness aversion." Idleness aversion is something the German sociologist Max Weber called "one of the core ingredients of the modern soul." Oliver Burkeman defines it as "not […]
Last Saturday morning dawned like most other Saturday mornings. Loose plans, weary bodies, much that needed our attention. "What do you want today to hold?" I asked my husband. He didn't seem very interested in the question. Distracted, caught up in his own thoughts. "I just have so much to do," he said. "Like what?" […]
To say this is a fast-paced time of year is an understatement, right? Concerts, parties, decorations to be strung, stockings to be hung, people to feed, gifts to buy and wrap and give … and sometimes return. It is too easy to lose oneself in the hustle and bustle. Too easy to think the hustle […]
I am revisiting Jenny Odell's fascinating book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Originally published in 2019, her work feels more urgent today than it did a mere six years ago. The pace of life--of change, of disruption, of technology--continues to accelerate. Most everyone I talk with is not okay. At all. I […]
I worked in the gardens until sweat poured down my face. It was one of those sultry August weekends in Iowa that makes us all flee inside to avoid wilting. Though tempted to sip iced tea in the air conditioning, my gardens called to me. It is that time of year when my flamboyant, showoff-y […]
Helena Fitzgerald wrote a lovely article in The Atlantic about the week we are currently living in. The lovely week between Christmas and the first full week of January. A week Fitzgerald lovingly calls "Dead Week." Please enjoy her words ... ********* Dead Week isn’t a week off for everyone, or at least the thing […]
