I’ve been thinking about getting back to things. We read so much about starting something new. And while it’s a brave, character-building experience to step into the unknown, there’s something equally courageous about returning to something that we’ve become separated from. I don’t go to a gym, run, jog, or cycle. Because I live in a walkable neighborhood and city, I do walk a fair bit on my way from one place to another. Yet my walking becomes considerably less when it’s cold…

Years ago, when I was a grad student living in DC, there was a particular walk I’d take in order to get from my apartment to the Georgetown campus. Actually, there were two routes I could have taken. But only one of them would also take my to my yoga studio at the time, which was my first stop of the day. The walk was about twenty-five minutes, which doesn’t sound very long when I write it down. But twenty-five minutes is a…

A while back I read a quotation from Diego Perez, who goes by the pen name of Yung Pueblo. It said, Maturity is knowing that when your mood is down you should not trust the way you see yourself. I happen to be down today. It’s not sadness or melancholy so much as overwhelm and fatigue, which has been an on-and-off-again theme this year. I’ve been sitting here for the past hour feeling awfully frustrated with myself for a whole catalog of reasons….

I’ve been back from traveling for a week now, and I’m easing back into things. I had a lovely holiday. I told myself I’d work a bit on this trip, but as soon as I left New York, I decided not to. Nothing, I realized, was so terribly important that it couldn’t be dealt with in two weeks’ time. In the words of a former boss of mine, “the lives of children do not hang in the balance.” I shared some photos on…

If you tune in regularly, then maybe you’ve noticed that it’s been a challenge for me to keep up with Sunday posts lately. Nothing’s wrong; I’m just very focused on work and on loved ones. There’s not a lot of time to process or reflect these days, so when I think about writing something on Sunday, I often don’t know what to say. A while back, I polled readers about what they might like to see covered in a monthly newsletter for subscribers…

I spent some time with friends outside of Boston last weekend. On Saturday night, they gave me a treat: pizza night in their home. When they first told me that homemade pizza was on the menu, I felt the need to assure them that I didn’t expect or need anything so elaborate. My friend Stephanie looked confused. “But it’s our favorite thing!” she exclaimed. “That’s what we’d be making tonight if you weren’t here.” In theory, I like making homemade pizza, too. In…

This week, I was really struck by a thread about rest, written by psychologist Nicola Jane Hobbs. Specifically, I loved the way that Hobbs delineates different forms of rest, many of which I hadn’t considered. Hobbs writes, Physical rest is sleep. Stretching, Nourishing food. Mindful movement. Mental rest is any kind of non-thinking activity. Baking. Painting. Gardening. Single Tasking. Emotional rest is crying. Journalling. Therapy. Healthy emotional expression. Sharing rather than suppressing. Social rest is hugs. Solitude. Intimacy. Community. Activism. Employee resource groups….