Thinking small does not happen automatically for me. On my morning walks with Frank, my tendency is to think back on any troubles from the day before, or to anticipate those of the day ahead. An argument I had with Stephen, the health crisis of …
I’ve long had a habit of eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. When Jonah was a teenager and we’d go out to dinner, he used to tap me on the shoulder and, with a huge smile, remind me, “Mom, I’m the person you’re having dinner with.” …
We’d just finished a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey juicy and tender, the cranberry sauce filled with sweet chunks of apple, the carrots aromatic with five-spice. It was our first holiday together since Corona struck, and I think each of us, some more consciously than …
If you allow it to, one sweet moment can keep giving joy. I first learned this when I was writing my book, “Small: The Little We Need for Happiness,” and I have been rediscovering it ever since. The trick is to remember how powerful reimagining …
My two granddaughters have very different personalities. While Poppy, who is eight, is passionate and affectionate, Amelie, the ten-year-old, tries to keep an even keel and prefers expressions of irony to emotion. I, of course, appreciate Amelie’s humor, but have found myself lately longing for …
Our first few weeks in Pujols I felt guilty. I had traded an environment where Covid was constantly on everybody’s mind, along with climate change, politics and the imminent possibility of massive wild fires, for a medieval village in the south of France, where for …
Stephen and I have been walking the trail around the village for the last few months, down from the top of the hill, around the circumference of the valley below Pujols, then back up to the top, and on once again into the village. The …
Right before Covid hit, a friend went to the Metropolitan Opera film of “Porgy and Bess” at a local movie theatre, in a small village in France. She had been planning to attend with another friend, but that friend had made an unexpected trip to …
Imagine this: Eight friends sitting outdoors around a wooden table overlooking the valley below. The table is filled with bottles of wine, a cheeseboard and baguettes, a beautiful wreath of gougere, and a bowl of rillettes (a confit of pork meat). The sky above the …