Our lives move at a constant 85 mph. It is a pace of life that is adulated by American society for its efficiency, productivity, and ability to “do it all” in one day. The sad truth is that 85 mph is a speed which prevents us from really living. Someone told me this weekend that
AS DIFFERENT AS GREAT DANES & CHIHUAHUAS
People’s tastes in dogs never fails to amaze me. Some like big dogs, some small, and some not at all. I myself am a Great Dane kind of girl; I’ve recently come dangerously close to buying a Dane puppy, but resisted thanks to the common sense of my friends and family who reminded me that
STRESS = MESS
Stress is the greatest thief of all time. It is the villain that we fail to recognize even though it stares us straight in the face on a daily basis. When stress enters our lives, our lives change. True intimacy and human connection becomes tainted, laughter fades, and our body recoils in self-protection. The hormone
WINE BARS AND FRENCH GLASSES
Wine bars transport me back to France. They encompass everything I used to love about my days living and working in Bordeaux, the days where I “worked” for two hours and then spent the rest of the day with friends and wine at a café. Richmond has a fantastic new little wine bar that I
PAGING AMELIA EARHART
I want the Amelia Earhart syndrome: you know, the raw love for doing something that sets the mind, spirit and body free. Amelia accomplished more than anyone in the world at that time thought was even possible. She loved flying –the feeling of being her own bird — and she dreamed of flying the world.
THE TEN MINUTE CUSHION
We live our daily lives without enough of a cushion. The alarm clock goes off, we rush out of the house, we franctically squeeze in all your errands, we work eight hours, we make it to dinner, we have five minutes of free time and then we collapse into bed to do it all again. We have allowed ourselves
INSPIRATION: NEXT EXIT
Satelite radio gives me the privledge of listening to a world of possibilities as I drive to and from work everyday. Typically, I jam out to Hip Hop Nation, Shade 45 or the Spanish station Caliente, though I sometimes alternate my options with French talk radio, Doctor Radio and NPR. Possibilies is what life is
RAINING COLORS
Life is like a rainbow: for the vibrancy of its colors to appear, you need to both sunshine and rain. This morning, waking up to the pitter-patter of rain on my roof, I started thinking a lot about what makes my life colorful. As I sit with my cup of British peppermint tea from Fortnum
THE NOTHINGNESS OF HAPPINESS
I’ve started trying to do nothing. This is not laziness, cynicism or withdrawal on my part, rather, this demands an incredible amount of effort. Try it yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Turn off your radio when you drive. Think about nothing when you lay down to go to bed at night. Turn down an invitation
COFFEE: MY FRANGLISH INSPIRATION
Perhaps I should explain why I ever started drinking coffee, because I am not a real coffee drinker. I mean, I do drink real coffee; I’m just not the type of girl that goes to Starbucks for frou-frou “coffees” that doen’t even have coffee in them. I am the bonafide espresso drinking, black coffee kind of