I’m sure that I’m not the only person who felt the jolt of the first full work week of the new year. I was ready to be back in the swing of things, but as soon as Monday morning came, I felt myself battling overwhelm. It was happy timing that I had a copy of Tarthang Tulku’s The Gift of Work queued up in my Kindle. Tulku, a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, writes, “through work we contribute energy to life, investing our body,…

A quick little story about cookie boxes. For the past two years, it’s been my intention to make cookie boxes as holiday gifts for my friends and family. I haven’t gotten around to it, thanks to long work hours and busy months of December. When I told this to a friend a few weeks ago, her reply was, “God, Gena. That’s a lot.” Moments later, she qualified the reaction, noting that half of the effort would be to gather up the requisite materials:…

This weekend reading post is arriving a little late. But does it really matter in this period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve when nobody can say which day of the week it is? There have been years when the fuzziness of this week felt murky and disorienting. This year, it feels delightful. I always say that I want to embrace the twelve days of Christmas in their entirety, from December 25th through January 6th. Yet I usually succumb to a more conventional,…

Last weekend, I reflected gratefully on an overdue visit with friends upstate. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we miss a person until there’s a reunion. This past week, I had another encounter that made me give thanks for adult friendship. I’d been telling a close friend about something difficult that I was going through. She listened supportively, and then she noted that she may have to navigate something similar at some point in the nearish future. I told her that I’d be…

I just got back from a cozy weekend upstate, where I was staying with a good friend and her family. There was sitting by the fireplace, gazing at my friend’s impressively tall, fully decorated Christmas tree. There were fresh bagels for breakfast, tea and chocolate in the afternoon, and a couple of really excellent homemade dinners. Most of all, my friend and I had that rare luxury of long catch-up conversations over the course of two days. We kept trying to wrap our…

People often ask me how I remain motivated to cook, since I live alone. Friends have told me that they love cooking for their families, but that cooking just for themselves feels “sad.” Clients tell me that cooking feels like too much work if only one person benefits, and they complain about having too many leftovers. For the record, I respectfully disagree. I’ve written about the joys of solo cooking and dining many times in the past, and I believe that making oneself…

Yesterday was one of the first truly wintery days of the season. I ventured out for my morning yoga practice, looking forward to the warmth and coziness of the studio. When I arrived, it seemed uncharacteristically chilly in there. I stripped off my coat and hat, thinking it might just be the entryway. But when I got into the studio itself, it was indeed very cold. My teacher explained that the building’s heat had been off all morning. Of all the mornings, I…