I ought to be able to do this myself

Sometimes I get great satisfaction from figuring out how to do things myself. I once spent a ridiculous amount of time turning an old router into a wireless bridge to boost the signal upstairs. It worked! I also tried to teach myself programming so that I could build an app I had an idea for. […]

What brings you joy? What advances your goals?

I have not yet read Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. (I did just get it electronically from my library so it will not clutter up my house). Everything I’ve heard about it rings true to me. I have definitely felt the uplift when I purge unwanted crap from my house. […]

In Praise of Easy

A teacher I admire wrote this in her newsletter: Beware anyone who tells you what you want can be “easy.” Easy is a drug. Easy is not discerning. Easy is for lazy people. I didn’t exactly bristle when I read that, but I questioned myself. “Stella thinks easy is bad. I strive for easy. How […]

Brighter Days Ahead

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]Autumn has often been a difficult time for me. Living in New England with the beautiful colors didn’t help. As soon as the first swamp maple turned red in mid-August I’d get a stab of sadness as […]

Planning for Serendipity

Yesterday in conversation I was describing how a certain event in my life came about and realized that many if not all of my major milestones happened by chance– or at least that’s the way I think about them. My college major, my best jobs, meeting my husband, our home in Italy. I stumbled upon […]