The term "self-improvement" implies a need to correct and perfect oneself. That is also the job of most magazines. I had to stop reading The Atlantic Monthly because I became persuaded that if I bought the wrong kind of hazelnuts or olive oil or cassis I was missing...

To some, lack of inhibition means lack of control. To others, inhibitions create structures for social order. My hunch, the hunch I'm working on and living with, is that my inhibitions hold me back from something I want. I want to make contact with people I think of...

Usually, I just let cultural phenomena pass me by, avoiding popular culture by default rather than act of will. It takes an act of will to get me into a movie theater for a first-run movie. Often my lacking will is enhanced by the will of another (family member) or by...

In a blog post dated May 20, 2015, Seth Godin asks: Is it meeting your needs… Or merely creating new wants? Is it honoring your time or squandering your time? Is it connecting you with those you care about, or separating you from them? Is it exposing you or giving you...

For a while, I thought nobody was reading my 90 Posts in 90 Days series of blogs. Then I started getting comments from Facebook friends and relatives. Then my husband mentioned he was a few posts behind. Then my mom told me she loved it. Hi, everybody! I'm glad to...

Because I couldn’t figure it out. Because it was hard. Because I’d never done it before. Because I don’t something like it and I wanted to keep them separate. Because “I do not think the ending can be right” — Donald Justice Because I was a sinner against joy and...

Often, writer's block happens to you because somewhere in your work you've lied to yourself and your subconscious won't let you go any further until you've gone back, erased the lie, stated the truth and started over. — Jose Rivera, References to Salvador Dali Make Me...

The unrehearsed kiss expresses passion missing from too many lives. Try kissing someone who suspects it is coming and dreads it is not. Or letting passion like musical theater replace the unsaid inexpressible or overflowing moment in tender action. A kiss like dancing...

Oh, if life were made of moments Even now and then a bad one—! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one. — Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods Many people I talk with believe strongly in manifestation. This is the practice of making a thing come...

My imaginary friends when I was 3 years old were two bears, Letsy Bear and Betsy Bear; Letsy married Dot Stott, a dalmatian, and became Letsy Bear Stott. They used to ring the front doorbell because it was one of those old-fashioned turn-keys, and I let them come in....