I saw someone at an event recently who had an unusual canvas rucksack. 

The bag had patches stitched on it from all over the world.

And the patches were from unique destinations like Mozambique and Tasmania and Nicaragua, not just the usual France and Italy.

I just came back from a lovely trip to California. 

It’s where I’m from.

It’s where generations of my family are from.

We just sold one of our cars.

My red Jellybean.

Yes, that’s what we called her. 

My partner Dana decided to get an electric truck, and the car he was driving was newer than mine, so we decided to sell mine.

I went to an immersive art museum in Florida with my son this past weekend.

We needed some fun things to do, and perhaps a little pick-me-up based on the news lately.

My yoga instructor offered us a choice. 

“I have two possible classes,” she said. “One is easy peasy and the other will build strength. What do you all feel like?”

The group froze. Two choices! We looked at each other. We were silent.

We thought the game had its rules, but apparently, conditions have changed.

It appears that all bets are off.

We thought we agreed upon how things are done in the U.S., but a radically different kind of decision-making is here.

I continue to work on one big thing.

That is: Not getting worked up. 

As in, not letting myself get too irritated by things happening around me. In particular, I’m working with those moments when someone or something violates one of my values and I get upset or shut down. 

Juniper forward.

That’s how they described the particular gin. 

We were at St. Augustine Distillery, which makes fine craft spirits inside the walls of a former power and ice plant built in 1907. The FP&L Ice Plant was the first to make commercially produced ice in Florida.

I have a new favorite IPA. 

It is called State Machine. 

It comes Spyglass Brewing Company in New Hampshire. 

I just polished a family heirloom.

It’s a round crystal cut jar with a sterling silver lid—to hold candy, perhaps?

I have had it since my mother passed away 17 years ago. She had it since her mother passed away before that. And before that, her mother.

I’m working on letting go of the need to be right.

Darn it.

Right just sometimes feels so good!

The world is as I think it is. 

I have a picture in my mind of how things are, and that picture is proven true.

Some of the things I get stuck on being right? 

I had a ridiculous week of travel just before the holidays.

In eight days, I facilitated meetings in six different cities: Newark, Nashville, Charlotte, Denver, Burlington, and back to Newark.

In total, it included eight half-day retreats and trips in and out of Boston, all in one week.

Some people hate New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t get it.

I love marking significant transitions, whether they are birthdays, graduations, holidays, or calendar turns.

I led a few strategic planning workshops just before the holidays.

When preparing for one of them, I asked my co-facilitator to lead an opening activity. She asked the small groups to discuss, “What was the best Christmas gift you ever received”?

How prepared is your heart for whatever might happen next?

Psychologist and author Tara Brach says that we must prepare our heart for anything and everything. In other words, we must learn how to access stillness and evenness of mind regardless of the situation we face.

Can you hear that? 

It’s a blissful sound.

Silence. 

I used to be super uncomfortable with quiet—especially in groups. I thought silence was awkward. And that somebody needed to fill it. 

Ever wonder what Future You thinks about Present You?

In other words, if you could talk to a 10-years-older-and-wiser You, what would that more experienced You say?

The question does assume that you are growing, developing, and becoming more like You as time passes—not less.

I wonder where my Girl Scout sash is. 

My mother would not have thrown it away—she was proud of all those little circles. She was the one who sowed them on in perfect straight lines.

I was on Martha’s Vineyard with some friends recently, and we took a 3-hour van tour of the Island.

We learned about the history, the culture, and a lot about Jaws, as the movie was filmed there back in the mid-’70s.

It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.

This beautiful line comes from Mary Oliver’s poem “Invitation.”

Oliver suggests we must take a moment out of our busy and important day to linger and notice goldfinches in a field of thistles.