In choosing a title for this first blog post, I waffled between Crafting a Mindful Digital Life and Stalking a Mindful Digital Life. Recalling the etymology of the Greek root tekhne (art, craft), crafting won out. But I’m pretty certain that crafting a mindful digital life requires plenty of stalking…

I’m not new to digital life—in 1985, the possibility of citizen diplomacy with people in what was then the Soviet Union inspired me to purchase my first modem (insert the distinctive and extinct modem sound) and teach myself how to configure it to get “online” using a BBS (Bulletin Board Service). A decade later, I hosted Earth Day “live online” storytelling events on the World Wide Web (sounds so quaint now).

Fast forward, 2017. In the last few years I started noticing that almost every parent I know is struggling to live intelligently, mindfully, and gracefully with the now ubiquitous digital–and to help their kids to do the same.

Initially, I intend to curate helpful and encouraging content organized around four broad themes:

• Mindfully Digital–Critically engage technology.
• Nature as Default–Grow Your Sense of Place.
• Authentic Connection–Nurture Co-creative Conversations.
• Future by Design–Identify and Clarify Essential Values and Goals.

So what can Mindful Digital Life blog subscribers expect? Stories, interviews, reviews, recommendations, an occasional fable, and infrequent progress reports on my own content and programs for parents, tweens, teens, and young adults. I look forward to sharing with you on the journey.

Traveler, there is no path.
The path is made by walking.

–Antonio Machado, from Border of a Dream: Selected Poems, XXIX