I recently checked in with Amazon, and was astounded at the number of books on happiness. So many experts and so many methods of achieving this ideal state. Where does small fit in to this universe, I asked myself? And with all these books and …
I had hoped to write during my month in France, but was too busy and distracted to focus. So I was relieved when an idea for a new essay came to me a few days after returning home. I wanted to write about how speaking …
I just spent a month in France, where I didn’t think about small at all. Not once. When I returned home, I felt completely disconnected from the practice that had been central to my life. The disconnect is understandable. I hadn’t felt the need for …
At the end of the day, the participants in the “Jumpstarting Your Writing” workshop I taught several weeks ago, agreed to settle on a small amount of time—15 minutes to a half hour–Writing and Starting a to write, at least five times a week, and …
Today, I was faced with a dilemma: the woman who schedules appointments for my acupuncturist had phoned to ask me to bring a copy of my book to the office for her. “I’ve read some of it and want my own copy,” she told me. …
Last night as I was falling asleep, I felt a strong desire to work on, not in, my office. I pictured myself vacuuming, dusting, emptying and rearranging shelves, then finally re-curating the photos on the walls and the collection of objets I have displayed over …
My friend Tom Friedland phoned this morning to tell me about a David Brooks editorial in the NY Times. “It’s about Mr. Rogers and his views on big and small. Thought you’d be interested.” As soon as I got home, I opened the paper, and …
We are all so busy these days. I know many people who rush from appointment to appointment, engagement to engagement, without, it seems, a clear sense of just what their priorities are, or what they would most like to be doing. I’m sometimes tempted to …
Today, small allowed me to have a peak teaching experience. Not that I don’t usually enjoy teaching and appreciate my students. I do. But I haven’t taught in some time and was worried about how an all-day workshop I had scheduled would work out. Did …
A client and I were discussing John McPhee’s essay “The Search for Marvin Gardens.” With its richness of form, multiple themes and sources of tension, I thought the essay would make good material for a rich conversation. And it did. My client recently underwent …