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Take a minute to consider a conversation you’ve had with your kids or family members that went really well—any conversation, not just about technology or digital life. Bring to mind the qualities that were present that contributed to the success of that conversation.

I consider the practice of Co-Creative Conversation a foundation for Mindful Digital Life. This practice can help us to build a family culture of genuine conversation about our lives in the digital realm—providing a safe space to test and clarify ideas, where over time, we can develop mindfulness…in particular, a curious and kind inner voice that can notice, reflect, and choose. In my experience, Mindful Digital Life flourishes in trust. And Co-Creative Conversation is the crucible of trust-building. [Read more…] about Submerged to Emerged—Investigations in the Great Info Ocean

I moved three times in rapid succession in 2010. I’d finally bought a set of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves for home 1. I placed them in the narrow hallway—the only spot in the small abode that had room for them. I recall that putting out the books on those shelves was an event full of encounters with old friends—the authors and the books themselves.

Then I had to move. I could deal with packing up all of those books in boxes for a moving truck to haul, then carrying boxes up 2 flights of stairs to my new space in home 1. But now I had to do it again. I did it. Whew. Home 2.

Then I had to move again. I thought I didn’t really like digital books, which is funny because I’m “an early adopter.” But standing there in front of the bookshelves with boxes half packed, I vowed on the spot that I would not buy another paper book, and I would sell and give away whatever books I owned that were just gathering dust.

I now have 409 digital books on my phone…which brings me in my story to the book, Thunder & Lightning—Weather, Past, Present, Future. [Read more…] about I’m thinking about paper books in a digital world

I like to do some kind of personal retreat or professional development workshop around the time of my birthday. Four years ago I took a train to San Diego to attend the first West Coast .b Mindfulness training. Another year I spent a few days at Green Gulch Zen Center.

This year right after my birthday, David Levy, author of the excellent book Mindful Tech, was facilitating a weekend Mindful Tech retreat with poet, author, and founder of Everyday Zen, Norman Fischer. I’ve always wanted to go to Tassajara, deep in the Los Padres National Forest in Northern California. I had no doubt that the combination of Mindful Tech + Tassajara would be just the support I needed. The week of the trip, I was starting to feel some anticipation when I received an email that the event was cancelled. [Read more…] about How a cancelled retreat led to a mindful tech “News-Out”