"I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can […]

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?" […]

And now, we rest. Leftovers tucked away in the fridge. Kitchen tidied a bit. Perhaps we have bid a fond farewell to our guests. And unless we are building up for a raucous New Year's Eve, we can simply rest. But in order to do so, we must fight the messages that resound both inside […]

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 […]

And now, we rest. Leftovers tucked away in the fridge. Kitchen tidied a bit. Perhaps we have bid a fond farewell to our guests. And unless we are building up for a raucous New Year's Eve, we can simply rest. But in order to do so, we must fight the messages that resound both inside […]