What would happen if you let the pause be uncomfortable? Let your child be who they are? Let the sickness run its course? Let your advice go untaken? Let your parents be disappointed in your decision? Let yourself compare unfavorably? Let the person in the […]
All posts filed under: positive psychology
Little Luxuries
When you think of luxury, what does that word bring to mind for you? It instantly gets me thinking about 2,000 thread count sheets and a mattress that feels like sleeping on a cloud. The time and ease of mind to luxuriate in them. Food […]
Three Good Things
I’m writing this while under the influence of a meager five hours of sleep which means I am seriously under-resourced. (Not my fault; I gave a full 8-hour allotment my best shot.) Five hours may sound like a bonanza of sleep for some* but at […]
Glimmering through the day
That phrase, “Just getting through the day,” has always seemed like a lousy way to live, and yet that’s often my sense of how it’s done, how we talk about it, how I do it, using little stepping-stones of pleasure to keep me moving along. […]
Mona Lisa
I was once involved with a person who would receive bad news with a sort of half-smile. It’s hard to put into words what that expression seemed to mean. There was a knowing, wistful quality to it, as if he understood that life cannot always […]
Our Story in Layer and Time
There is nothing like the Grand Canyon to make you feel like a speck in time. I hadn’t foreseen the irony of that as my partner and I planned a trip to the Grand Canyon to celebrate the 60 years we have each been on […]
Jasper’s This-Is-Good moment
Jasper is a jail-break kind of dog that slips his leash or digs his way to freedom, however the opportunity may present itself. Pam is a 60-year-old “I’m-on-it” sort of woman who drops her bike on the sidewalk to chase down neighborhood dogs on the […]
Life is still good
Lately the going has been quite rough for everyone, but I happened upon something the other day on my walk that made the world still look pretty delightful. At 6 in the morning In downtown Bangor I found a friendly-looking, middle-aged fellow wrestling a stuffed […]
Respectable you
I went to work on Monday, March 16th. About 2 o’clock that afternoon my manager called to say it’s happening; pack up your laptop and go home. In the span of about a minute I became an instant remote employee along with many other people. […]
Salvaging stumps
The ideal way to lose something is by choice – and if it’s by choice, then losing it is probably a very joyous thing, as in the case of holiday pounds or bad habits. But even when the loss is unwanted, it doesn’t mean something […]
Some good news
There was one sad winter when even the sound of a siren would bring tears to my eyes just thinking about the tragic mission that emergency vehicle might be on. But that was also the winter I discovered The Office, the legendary sitcom series set […]

