Tomorrow I'm flying back to Michigan to be with my family. It's been a weird few days here in Sweden, being so far removed from my childhood home, my mother and brother, our extended family and our friends. I've had to continue on with life as normal here, even with a heavy heart. I've felt as though my grieving...
Thinking
Happiness isn't big enough
Last week I wrote a post considering the question of whether seeking happiness actually makes us miserable, as some maintain. (Spoiler alert: I don't think so.) I was moved by the comments to that post, and all week I've been thinking about this one: In the 1960s, there were some very popular and influential books that accused American...
"Why Am I Still Thinking About This Day?"
I listened to a podcast last week that I've been thinking about ever since. It was an episode of Magic Lessons (Season 1, Episode 10) in which Elizabeth Gilbert talks to the humorist John Hodgman about creativity and trying new things. Hodgman explains that at a friend's prompting, he scheduled a series of weekly shows at a small theater in Brooklyn....
Rainy Day Reads
Today is the first rainy day we've had in weeks, and I'm loving it. I don't feel any pressure to go out for a walk or admire the view: I feel perfectly okay sitting inside, reading and sipping tea (there's probably a nap happening this afternoon, too). While I'm terrified of the long winter to come, today...
Some Thoughts on a Friday
I went to a funeral earlier this week on the island of Åland. I hadn't known the person who passed very long, but I'd come to admire him in the months that I did. A friend and I went together, taking a ferry from Sweden to the Finnish islands lying in the Baltic.
Happiness Project: A New Page for Links
I'm recovering from a long weekend of hosting friends from out-of-country and a short trip to Åland, a group of Swedish-speaking Finnish islands (an archipelago!) that lie between Sweden and Finland. I'm also battling a cold while desperately trying to catch up with office work. I find it so much harder to recover and to catch...
Why September is Great for Projects
While I'm preparing tomorrow's post about making resolutions for my happiness project, I wanted to share this wonderful, timely piece with you. It comes from The Pool, a smart web publication from Britain that my friend Sophia turned me on to. (It's definitely worth subscribing to their email list!).
Friday Fun: the Bump
The weekend is nearly here and we're finally recovering from jetlag. The boys and I slept the whole night through for the first time since returning from Michigan, which has done wonders for my sanity and ability to write semi-coherent sentences. To answer the question that's surely on your mind after seeing the picture above: yes, I've...
Would You Stay at the Ice Hotel?
I know it's still summer for most of you but for some reason today I'm thinking about the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden. The hotel is in the village of Jukkasjärvi, north of the Arctic Circle. Every spring the hotel and accompanying art exhibition melts back into the Torne River from where the ice is harvested. And...
Why You Shouldn't Follow Your Passion
Follow your passion. We've all heard it a million times, right? Follow your bliss. Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. The admonitions to find exciting, deeply fulfilling work--with the implied or else. I don't know where I first heard this, but I do know it was somehow embedded in me from early on. Because of...