Delivering Happiness shares Zappos story, teaches

June 7, 2010

Zappos.com CEO Tony Hseih has released Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion, and purpose. I have followed Zappos CEO and several others Zappos team members on Twitter for a while now, and I’ve enjoyed learning from him about his studies specifically on happiness. Since my title at my day job is Director of Happiness, [...]

Music and breath heals

April 27, 2010

I tweaked my back two weekends in a row. I have some history of back pain, largely stemming from a jaunty twist in my spine (scoliosis). And, because I bend towards my knitting, bend towards my computer monitor, and otherwise stress out my upper back and neck, my upper back gets cranky now and then.
Once [...]

Privileged Misfit – The Tall Book

August 1, 2009

I’m on vacation. And I read The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life on High by Arianne Cohen today. Just sat down and read it, cover to cover, with a break for a fishing trip and dinner. Very pleasurable. I read sections aloud to my husband, to explain why I was laughing out loud. I [...]

Wise words on meditation

August 1, 2008

I was trying to explain meditation to a friend the other day, and I found myself struggling. She asked how I quiet my mind in meditation, and I said, well, I am not always successful, but that meditation gives me a set time to practice. She asked what it was like, I said it varied. [...]

The Happiness Hypothesis

July 21, 2008

I first heard about The Happiness Hypothesis from twitter, from @zappos tweet on having finished it, to be exact. I was especially interested in the premise of this book–a look at ancient wisdom and modern psychological research. Jonathan Haidt carefully reviews 10 ideas that have been threads in ancient wisdom and have been addressed in [...]

The value of libraries and bookstores (gratitude #24)

May 22, 2008

So, there’s this blog I read, and the author has a book with a really compelling title. I’ve enjoyed his blog posts on the topic, and I had put his book on my Amazon wish list.
In support of my intention to acquire, maintain, and store less stuff, I moved most of my Amazon wish list [...]

Enjoying getting lost in a book (gratitude, week 11)

March 17, 2008

I’ve had an Amazon wish list going for a while, collecting books I hear about that I want to read. It was getting longer and longer. At the same time, I am trying to optimize my belongings to fit into my space and I’m trying to keep the possessions I have in the house [...]

Encountered on the flyleaf of a Shakespeare anthology

January 27, 2008

Last night we were looking for a Shakespeare sonnet at dinner, so I pulled down The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Annotated from the shelf and opened it to discover this inscription
“To my darling Deedee, Xmas ‘87. The greatest author in the English language! From the greatest Dad.”
I’m Deedee, my dad has been dead [...]

Take This Quiz: Are You an Under-buyer or an Over-buyer? | Zen Habits

December 1, 2007

Take This Quiz: Are You an Under-buyer or an Over-buyer? | Zen Habits
This took me about 30 seconds. I’m definitely an under-buyer.
I revel in open, uncluttered space, get annoyed at piles o’stuff, don’t stockpile, and, consequently, I short myself on staples now and then (no milk or no cereal for a few days in a [...]

Three Cups of Tea

September 6, 2007

I remember where I was on September 11, 2001. I was at my old job, working on a computer, not tuned into the news, when a colleague called and told us to tune into CNN. A rushing sense of unreality, helplessness, and shock followed. Then, we invaded Afghanistan, and I worried about the long-term effects [...]