Recently, I was talking (OK, complaining) to a colleague about being stuck with a seemingly insurmountable number of work to-dos. She offered that, when she’s overwhelmed, she shifts her mindset from “I have to” to “I get to.” She told me that this change in self-talk allows her to greet her work with more appreciation and excitement. I’ll be honest, my first reaction to this statement was an internal eye roll. Because none of the tasks in front of me felt like things…

I ran out to do a quick errand on Thursday. As I was dashing back home, I heard someone shout my name on the street. When I turned around, the woman who had called out to me had her hand over her mouth in disbelief. She told me she couldn’t believe that it was me and that I had responded. She said that she’s a longtime reader, visiting some family in NYC. Over the years, she’s come to feel as though she’s a…

I recently held The Vegan Week in my hands for the first time. It was a good feeling. I’ve joked so much about how difficult this writing process was, how it moved in fits and starts and deadline extensions. In spite of my own floundering, I worked with an amazing team of collaborators, and thanks to them, it’s really a beautiful book. Today in class my yoga teacher said something about the process of taking on a challenge. She pointed out how often…

September may be the start of back-to-school season, but in many ways,  it always feels to me like the last month of summer. Where I live, September is usually quite warm. There are always some cooler mornings, and there’s more dryness in the air, but basically, it’s still a month of light layers and bare arms. At the farmer’s market, there are apples and winter squash. But there are still stone fruits, tomatoes, and eggplants till the first week of October, and sometimes…

Sometimes, something happens that makes me especially aware of my ability to turn small things into big things. This is especially true when it comes to anything I’ve been avoiding. Unpacking is still in process around here. I’ve gotten a lot done, but my original goal of unpacking 2 boxes per day has become 2 boxes per week. At this point, I’m down to only a few boxes. But oh, how I’ve been procrastinating with those boxes. I always think it’s funny how…

I’ve been struggling to decide what to do about my windows. The windows in my studio are what made me fall in love with it. They’re really big, relative to the space, with black frames that stand out against the white walls. They allow the studio to become flooded with light during the day. But even when the sun is at its peak, the light remains creamy and warm. I face a stone-colored wall on another building. Somehow there’s enough distance between my…

In spite of the fact that I’m not an especially deep sleeper, I almost never remember dreams. So it’s always notable when one sticks with me. A few nights ago, I dreamt that my mom and I were making a collage with some of her oil paintings. It was huge, the size of a wall, bigger than either one of us. My mom has been a working artist my whole life. But I think that this may have been the first time that…