What was it really like to spend a week in Fiji with Elizabeth Gilbert? Was it really that easy to hang out with her? Well, we didn’t really hang. But we did...

I went to a women’s retreat in Fiji because I wanted to spend a week on a tiny island with Elizabeth Gilbert. I knew that even if we didn’t have a soul-to-so...

“I could dive straight down now, even if I still couldn’t go that far. If I took several shallow dives, then I could risk a deeper one.” -Lisa See, The Islan...

We learn about love from the music we hear as a child. Some of it’s our choosing, like my well-loved cassette of Madonna’s Immaculate Collection or first CDs...

The holiday cards are coming in. Rounded edges. Matte finish. “Merry Happy Jolly.” Equal pictures of each kid, and maybe one picture of the parents—the peopl...

“It’s time to eat your vegetables,” a friend had said when I was deciding what to do about a trip. When I asked her what she meant, she explained this was no...

Everybody’s talking about Mister Rogers. The documentary, the Tom Hanks’ movie, and a handful of books about him released just this year are bringing back me...

I haven’t been present for any human deaths, but I was for the passing of my sweet cat Oreo. Once I knew it was time, I created for her—for us—the most lovin...

Oh, compassion. I was ready for this talk. Recently I’ve been trying to stay busy do-gooding: I’d volunteered at the Ballard Food Bank and the Senior Center....

“Make a series of smart choices,” I’d said to a friend before he left on a bender weekend in New Orleans. He laughed and said, “I’ll probably make a series o...

This week’s talk at Kadampa Meditation Center was on understanding our mind of love. The monk said the definition of the mind of love is “a virtuous mind mot...

This is the first reflection of a six-week series on “Creating a Meaningful Life” at Kadampa Meditation Center. Actually it’s a seven-week series, but the fi...

I’d heard the expression “boat people” before. Not referring to refugees, but people who work and live on boats. For the nine days I spent with six colleague...

In my early 20s when I was teaching ESL, a student told me his dream had been to come to America. He’d wanted it his whole life—or at least until his 20s—and...

One of the reasons I didn’t go to France a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago… was because I wanted to go with the right person. I thought I had to be w...

Remember the children’s book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” where Alexander says he’s going to move to Australia? Remember how...

I’ve stayed in plenty of nice places—some of which I’ve paid for financially, all of which I’ve paid for emotionally. I’ve stayed in big hotel rooms with hug...

When I became bike-only after my car was totaled a year ago, I thought my life would change dramatically—for the worse. But mostly it hasn’t. I’ve saved a to...

On May first I decided I had to get it together. I had two months until I turned 40. And somehow those two months—as opposed to the 39 years and 10 months I’...

I started to plan Paris. The funny thing was, as I reached out to European friends telling them that I was making my dream come true, they became a part of i...