She sat in her usual chair, her rolling walker next to her.  I sat across from her in my usual spot on the couch.  This is how we’ve started my piano lessons for the last few years.  We sit in the living room and catch up.  Sometimes we don’t even make it to the piano…

“What’s this about?” she asked as she took a seat next to me and picked up my book off the table. “I’m not sure,” I said.  “A friend just lent it to me and I haven’t even started it yet.”  I was sitting at the local cafe and coffee shop eating my lunch.  My visitor…

Life consists in learning to live on one’s own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is one’s own – be familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, and learning what one has to offer to the contemporary world, and then learning how to make that offering…

In a recent interview I heard on NPR, Daniel Pink talked about what motivates us.  In his new book (Drive), he explains that companies who motivate their employees with either compensation or punishment have it all wrong.  Instead, he says, there are three things that motivate us.  And he says these three things don’t just…

After spending five hours in bed one Sunday morning reading “No Impact Man,” I’m starting to notice packaging a lot more.  The author, while sifting through his garbage, noticed it was one of most popular things he threw out.  Same here.  I saw somewhere that 80% of the stuff we buy is disposable.  Guess where…

I was watching the PBS series “This Emotional Life” today and after an hour of saying, “Oh – this is so good I should be taking notes,” I finally wrote something down.  One of the experts said that in our relationships we should “go toward the conflict”  – don’t avoid it, don’t suppress it.  “Conflict,”…

“Did you hear back from colleges yet?” I asked one of my tutoring students as I flipped through her file. “Yes, I got into three, but am still waiting for responses from a couple,” she replied. “What major did you say you were going for?” I asked after realizing I hadn’t noted it anywhere.  “Engineering,”…